Lucite Cube // Protactinium

Protactinium is so rare in nature that its existence was verified only 99 years ago. Then, in 1961, the British specifically commissioned a team of nuclear physicists to extract as much of this metal as possible from 60 tons of spent nuclear fuel. For their efforts, they were rewarded with a sum total of 4 ounces.

It's rarity makes it very expensive, and even don't bother shopping for it without the necessary permits. Contact with just a gram of this highly-radioactive element would kill you dead within hours, and your corpse would be declared a toxic site.

But Luciteria has you covered. They managed to extract their own sample of protactinium by pulverizing high-grade uranium ore into a radioactive powder. Every 20 pounds of this powder contains maybe one single milligram of protactinium, which must then be extracted, losing some in the process.

This extraction is accomplished by boiling the ore powder in nitric acid to remove the uranium and thorium present. The remaining residue is then heated up slowly in hydrofluoric acid over a period of several days, before being treated with a special blend of other solvents and acids, and finally left to dry. The end result is a very thin piece of plating (placed on aluminum for this sample) that contains a microscopic quantity of protactinium metal. You're welcome. And do NOT try that at home.