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| Occurrence and Production of Gadolinium |
 Occurrence
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| Gadolinium is never found in nature as the free element, but is contained in many rare minerals such as monazite and bastnasite. It occurs only in trace amounts in the mineral gadolinite which was also named after Johan Gadolin. Today, it is prepared by ion exchange and solvent extraction techniques, or by the reduction of its anhydrous fluoride with metallic calcium. |