The isolation procedures of dysprosium are highly complex and involve multiple chemical reactions. Due to the fact that dysprosium must be separated from other elements with similar chemical characteristics, the complex isolation procedures are never performed on a small scale basis in laboratories. Dysprosium most often occurs in minerals such as bastnasite, euxenite, erbium, holmium, fergusonite, monazite, and xenotime.
The extraction process of dysprosium begins with treating the minerals it occurs in with sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and sodium hydroxide. This process extracts the lanthanides from their minerals in a salt form. Repeated solvent extractions and ion exchange chromatography are used to further reduce and isolation dysprosium. Once dysprosium has been reduced to its fluoride form, it is reacted with pure calcium metal. This reaction takes place under heated conditions to separate the dysprosium from the fluoride. Any excess calcium that remains as a contaminant in the dysprosium is removed through vacuum resulting in pure dysprosium.