In 1901, Eugène-Anatole Demarçay carried out a painstaking sequence of crystallisations of samarium magnesium nitrate, and separated yet another new element: europium.

The white allotrope can be produced using several different methods. In the industrial process, phosphate rock is heated in an electric or fuel-fired furnace

Europium is prepared by heating its oxide with lanthanum metal: Europium metal is quite expensive to make and sells for about $3,000 to $4,500 a kilogram ($1,350 to $2,000 a pound).

A 2009 study published in PLOS One concluded that the global warming potential of mining and processing nickel was the eighth highest of 63 metals over the previous year.