DESCRIPTION:

Zircon is a precious stone used by our ancestors, valued highly despite being considered a cheaper alternative to diamonds. Its variety of colors is due to added impurities. Historically, colorless zircons were popular for their diamond-like brilliance and reflection properties, although they are easily distinguishable due to their lower hardness and double refraction compared to diamonds. Mining primarily occurs in Cambodia, Australia, Thailand, and Myanmar.

Zircon commonly appears blue, with green, dark red, yellow, and orange variations also found. Prolonged exposure to sunlight can fade its color, but reheating can restore it. Techniques exist to minimize its double refraction. Proper cutting angles enhance its diamond-like appearance. Believed to protect against negative vibrations, zircon is associated with fostering self-confidence, wisdom, and intelligence, and it's reputed to cure ailments like epilepsy and fever while warding off evil spirits.

Zircon is highly valued in jewelry for its vibrant colors and ease of carving due to its hardness. Despite being sometimes mistaken for diamond, it holds spiritual significance, referenced in Hindu poetry depicting a mythical tree with gemstone fruits and leaves made of zircon. Assessing quality involves examining the gem under light for clarity and purity. Genuine zircons fetch higher prices based on size, color, and origin, emphasizing the importance of purchasing from reputable dealers to avoid counterfeit glass imitations.

ZIRCON MINING AND PROCESSING:

Zircon has been mined for centuries, initially prized for its use as gemstones. Today, the majority of zircon production comes from beach or alluvial deposits. Often found alongside ilmenite and rutile, zircon is typically extracted using dry mining methods for shallow deposits or those with harder materials. Excavators and scrapers are employed to unearth the ore, which is then transported by trucks or bulldozers to the initial processing plant.

For ore located below the water table or in high dune areas, dredge (wet) mining methods are utilized. This involves a dredge floating in an artificial pond, scraping up sand which is then sent to a wet concentrator attached to the dredge for initial processing. Once the mineral sands are extracted, mining companies rehabilitate the land and restore vegetation.

Gem-grade zircon crystals of exceptional quality are sometimes mined directly from pegmatite cavities. These crystals are carefully weighed, graded, and prepared for cutting or treatment.

PROCESSING ZIRCON:

Zircon's high density enables mechanical separation from other sand minerals. In the wet concentration plant, mined mineral sand undergoes washing through spiral separators to isolate heavy minerals from lighter quartz and clay materials. Subsequently, heavy minerals undergo further separation in a dry processing circuit using magnetic and electrostatic plate separators under varying temperatures. The processed zircon is then dried, graded, sized, and occasionally ground in mills before being transported

GEMSTONE PRODUCTION:

Natural gem-quality zircons typically exhibit colors such as yellow, red, or brown. Techniques like heating and irradiation are employed to produce a variety of colors including colorless, blue, and green, with blue being particularly popular. Gem-quality zircons for jewelry are mostly inclusion-free, though some may exhibit long parallel inclusions that create a distinctive cat's-eye effect when cut as cabochons. Zircons are typically faceted in the brilliant style, with an alternative zircon cut featuring additional facets around the gem's lower part.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES:

Color:

It occurs in diverse colors such as brown, red, yellow, gray, green, blue, black, and colorless. These variations are due to different impurities in its chemical composition; for example, black and brown colors result from the presence of iron oxide contamination.

Clarity:

It exhibits an adamantine luster and is transparent to translucent in nature. This unique stone is often rich in inclusions and flaws, although some cleaner stones are also found, albeit rarely.

Cut:

Cutting this gemstone is challenging due to its small size. However, with advancements in technology, it can now be cut brilliantly. It is fashioned into common shapes and cuts such as round, pear, heart, oval, and marquise.

Carat weight:

As a dense gemstone, it appears smaller compared to other gemstones of the same carat weight. It typically occurs in small crystal forms, with larger sizes being exceptionally rare. Jewelry pieces like rings, bracelets, earrings, bangles, and pendants often use stones weighing between 2 and 4 carats.

NATURAL OCCURRENCE:

Seiland, Germany, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Bancroft in Sudbury, Canada, the United States, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia, Brazil, Nigeria, Tanzania, and France.

AVAILABLE COLORS:

Brown, red, yellow, gray, green, blue, black, and colorless.

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