Zircon is a beautiful gemstone with a high refractive index and strong dispersion. (It should not be confused with Cubic Zirconia because the two are completely unrelated.) Zircon exhibits a range of colors including yellow, brown, orange, red, violet, blue, green and colorless. On Mohs’ scale of hardness, it is 6.5-7. It has a vitreous to brilliant luster and sources include Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, Brazil, Korea, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Vietnam.

Zircon is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates. Its chemical name is zirconium silicate and its corresponding chemical formula is ZrSiO4. Hafnium is almost always present in quantities ranging from 1 to 4%. The crystal structure of zircon is tetragonal crystal class. The natural color of zircon varies between colorless, yellow-golden, red, brown, and green. Colorless specimens that show gem quality are a popular substitute for diamond; these specimens are also known as "Matura diamond". It is not to be confused with cubic zirconia, a synthetic substance with a completely different chemical composition.

The name either derives from the Arabic word zarqun, meaning vermilion, or from the Persian zargun, meaning golden-colored. These words are corrupted into "jargoon", a term applied to light-colored zircons. Yellow zircon is called hyacinth, from a word of East Indian origin; in the Middle Ages all yellow stones of East Indian origin were called hyacinth, but today this term is restricted to the yellow zircons.

Zircon is regarded as the traditional birthstone for December.

Properties

Zircon is a remarkable mineral, if only for its almost ubiquitous presence in the crust of Earth. It is found in igneous rocks (as primary crystallization products), in metamorphic rocks and in sedimentary rocks (as detrital grains). Large zircon crystals are seldom abundant. Their average size, e.g. in granite rocks, is about 100–300 µm, but they can also grow to sizes of several centimeters, especially in pegmatites.

Owing to their uranium and thorium content, some zircons may undergo metamictization. This partially disrupts the crystal structure and explains the highly variable properties of zircon.

Zircon is a common accessory mineral and found worldwide. Noted occurrences include: in the Ural Mountains; Trentino, Monte Somma; and Vesuvius, Italy; Arendal, Norway; Sri Lanka, India; Thailand; Ratanakiri, Cambodia; at the Kimberley mines, Republic of South Africa; Madagascar; and in Canada in Renfrew County, Ontario, and Grenville, Quebec. In the United States: Litchfield, Maine; Chesterfield, Massachusetts; in Essex, Orange, and St. Lawrence Counties, New York; Henderson County, North Carolina; the Pikes Peak district of Colorado; and Llano County, Texas.

Thorite (ThSiO4) is an isostructural related mineral.

Zircon can come in red, brown, yellow, green, black, or colorless. The color of zircons below gem quality can be changed by heat treatment. Depending on the amount of heat applied, colorless, blue, and golden-yellow zircons can be made.

Uses

Zircons are commercially mined for the metal zirconium, and are used for abrasive and insulating purposes. It is the source of zirconium oxide, one of the most refractory materials known. Crucibles of ZrO are used to fuse platinum at temperatures in excess of 1755 oC. Zirconium metal is used in nuclear reactors due to its neutron absorption properties. Large specimens are appreciated as gemstones, owing to their high refractive index

Occurrence

Zircon is a common accessory to trace mineral constituent of most granite and felsic igneous rocks. Due to its hardness, durability and chemical inertness, zircon persists in sedimentary deposits and is a common constituent of most sands. Zircon is rare within mafic rocks and very rare within ultramafic rocks aside from a group of ultrapotassic intrusive rocks such as kimberlites, carbonatites and lamprophyre where zircon can occasionally be found as a trace mineral owing to the unusual magma genesis of these rocks.

Zircon forms economic concentrations within heavy mineral sands ore deposits, within certain pegmatites and within some rare alkaline volcanic rocks, for example the Toongi Trachyte, Dubbo, New South Wales Australia[1] in association with the zirconium-hafnium minerals eudiyalite and armstrongite.

Zircons and the age of Earth

The pervasive occurrence of zircon has become more important since the discovery of radiometric dating. Zircons contain amounts of uranium and thorium (from 10 ppm up to 1 wt%) and can be dated using modern analytical techniques. Since zircons can survive geologic processes like erosion, transport, even high-grade metamorphism, they are used as protolith indicators.

The oldest minerals found so far are zircons from Jack Hills in the Narryer Gneiss Terrane, Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, with an age of 4.404 billion years,[2] interpreted to be the age of crystallization. These zircons might not only be the oldest minerals on earth, they also show another interesting feature. Their oxygen isotopic composition has been interpreted to indicate that more than 4.4 billion years ago there was already water on the surface of the Earth. This spectacular interpretation has been published in top scientific journals, but is the subject of debate. Perhaps the oxygen isotopes and other compositional features (the rare earth elements) record more recent hydrothermal alteration of the zircons rather than the composition of the magma at the time of their original crystallization.