Production

            Samarium is produced by extracting it from monazite sand, a mixture of phosphates of calcium, thorium, cerium, and most other rare earth metals, bastanasite ore, and ionic clays of China.  Monazite sand is the main source for many rare earth metals. Every year, over 700 tons of Samarium are produced, from various mines in places such as the USA, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, and Australia. When refined, Samarium usually cost about five dollars per gram.

Uses

            Although Samarium is almost useless by itself, it has many applications when mixed with other materials. Some of its uses are for carbon-arc lighting for movies, coloring glass, flints in lighters, neutron absorbers in nuclear reactors and making lasers. Its most important use though is as a magnet. When combined with Cobalt, Samarium creates extremely strong rare earth magnets which are used in satellites, disk drives and sensors of all sorts. 

History

         Paul-Emily Lecoq first isolated samarium in 1879. The name samarium was derived from the mineral Samarskite, the mineral Samarium was first found in, which was named after the Russian mining engineer Vasili Samarksy-Bykhovers. Samarium was first found in the Ural Mountains and later in South Carolina.
            Before 1950, Samarium had no real uses in its basic form, but this was soon changed when samarium and gadolinium were combined to make the Linsay Mix. In this form, Samarium became very useful for such things as Nuclear Reactors, magnets, and projectors.

Lanthanides

         Lanthanides, the group Samarium comes from, are silvery-white metals that are located on the top row underneath the main table. The Lanthanides are all the atomic numbers from 57, Lanthanum, to 70, Ytterbium. Lanthanides are usually soft, but as the atomic number increases so does the hardness. They are usually very reactive and tarnish easily. Usually Lanthanides are alloyed with other metals, and they are never found on their own in nature.