What is it?
The last and densest rare earth, used in the crystals that detect gamma rays inside a PET scanner.
Why does it matter?
Lutetium-177 is also a targeted cancer therapy — a rare earth delivered directly to a tumour.
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 lutetium. A deposit is only an orebody if one of them is concentrated enough to pay for digging it up.
Xenotime
A yttrium phosphate that also carries the heavy rare earths — dysprosium, terbium, erbium — that magnets need.
Ion-Adsorption Clay
Weathered granite where rare-earth ions cling loosely to clay surfaces. Grades are very low but the metal washes out…
Price
average, dollars per kilogram: Lutetium oxide, 99.99% minimum
Annual averagedollars per kilogram
Basis: average, dollars per kilogram: Lutetium 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.
What it is used for
All end markets →| End market | What it does there | Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine & Health | PET scanner crystals and cancer therapy | Important |