What is it?
A rare earth that absorbs neutrons better than almost anything, and that makes MRI scans easier to read.
Why does it matter?
It does two unrelated critical jobs: control rods and burnable poison in nuclear reactors, and contrast agent in medical imaging.
Deeper written sections for this material have not been published yet. Everything below is drawn straight from the source datasets and is complete.
Where it comes from in the rock
All ore minerals →These are the minerals that actually carry gadolinium. A deposit is only an orebody if one of them is concentrated enough to pay for digging it up.
Ion-Adsorption Clay
Weathered granite where rare-earth ions cling loosely to clay surfaces. Grades are very low but the metal washes out…
Xenotime
A yttrium phosphate that also carries the heavy rare earths — dysprosium, terbium, erbium — that magnets need.
Price
average, dollars per kilogram: Gadolinium oxide, 99.99% minimum
Annual averagedollars per kilogram
Basis: average, dollars per kilogram: Gadolinium oxide, 99.99% minimum. Annual averages as published in USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · source ↗. These are reference annual averages, not a live market quote.
Mines that produce it
All mines →
Southern China Ion-Adsorption Clays →
What it is used for
All end markets →| End market | What it does there | Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine & Health | MRI contrast agent | Defining |
| Nuclear Power | Burnable neutron poison in fuel | Important |