Only minute amounts of technetium have ever been found in nature, and it's arguably not one of the 92 naturally–occurring elements. Predicted in 1871 by Mendeleev to fill a gap in the periodic table, it was first identified in 1936, in Palermo (Sicily) as having been produced artificially in the USA. It was subsequently detected in red giant stars, in 1952, and minute quantities were found in a sample of pitchblende from the Belgian Congo in 1962.
© Haydn Thompson 2017