Holmium can either be extracted out of the minerals it occurs in, or isolated from monazite sand. The isolation procedure that is needed to extract holmium out of monazite sand uses ion exchange processes to satisfy commercial holmium demand. Holmium can also be isolated from minerals such as gadolinite and monazite. The isolation process is extremely complex because these minerals contain other rare earth elements that have similar chemical characteristics with holmium; due to the difficulties with holmium isolation, it is never isolated on a small scale laboratory basis.
The isolation of holmium from minerals such as gadolinite and monazite begins with treating the minerals with sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and sulphuric acid. This isolates the lanthanides in their salt forms. Repeated solvent extractions and ion exchange chromatography processes further isolate holmium. The final extraction process reacts holmium fluoride with calcium under heated conditions to produce pure holmium and calcium fluoride.