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      THE MINERAL ZIRCON
THE MINERAL ZIRCON
Zircon: brilliant but misunderstood
Hindu poets tell of the Kalpa Tree, the ultimate gift to the gods, a glowing tree covered in gemstone fruit with leaves of zircon. Zircon has long played a supporting role to more well-known gemstones, often stepping in as an understudy when they were unavailable.
In the middle ages, zircon was said to aid sleep, bring prosperity, and promote honour and wisdom in its owner. The name probably comes from the Persian word 'zargun', which means 'gold-coloured', although zircon comes in a wide range of different colours.
Natural zircon today suffers on account of the similarity of its name to cubic zirconia, the laboratory-grown diamond imitation. Many people are unaware that there is a beautiful natural gemstone called zircon.
Zircon occurs in a wide range of colours, but for many years the most popular was the colourless variety, which looks more like diamond than any other natural stone because of its brilliance and dispersion.
Today the most popular colour is blue zircon, which is considered an alternative birthstone for December. Most blue zircon is of a pastel blue, but some exceptional gems have a bright blue colour. Zircon is also available in green, dark red, yellow, brown, and orange.
Zircon is mined in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Australia, and other countries.
Zircon is one of the heaviest gemstones, which means that it will look smaller than other varieties of the same weight. Zircon jewellery should be stored carefully because although it is relatively hard, zircon can suffer from abrasion and the facets can be chipped. Dealers often wrap zircons in individual twists of paper so that they will not knock against each other in a parcel.
The wide variety of colours of zircon, its rarity, and its relatively low cost make it a popular collector's stone. Collectors enjoy the search for all possible colours and variations.
Zircon, Zirconium Orthosilicate, is found in most igneous rocks and some metamorphic rocks as small crystals or grains, mostly widely distributed and rarely more than 1% of the total mass of the rock. It is also found as alluvial grains in some sedimentary rocks due to its high hardness. Zircon has a high index of refraction and, where crystals are large enough, is often used as a gemstone.
Zircons reputation has suffered of late due to the introduction of a diamond simulant. So for the record, zircon is NOT the same material as the artificial gem material Cubic Zirconia (or CZ). However with that in mind, zircon has been used as a diamond simulant both for innocent and nefarious reasons. Zircon resembles diamond in luster and fire and colorless zircons have been mistaken for diamonds by experienced jewelers. Zircon can make a very attractive and affordable gemstone. It is found in browns and greens but can be heat treated to beautiful blue and golden colors. Colorless material is produced in this way as well. Zircon is the December Birthstone.
As a mineral specimen, zircon is uncommon in most rock shops because attractive specimens are rare. However, fine specimens of well shaped zircons are available and are in demand. The typical simple crystal of zircon is a tetragonal prism terminated with four sided pyramids at each end. The prism may be lacking and the crystal can look octahedral. More complex crystals have faces of a less steeply inclined prism that taper the terminations. Also a secondary prism may truncate the primary prism by cutting off its edges and producing an octagonal cross-section through the crystal. There is even an eight sided pyramid (actually a ditetragonal dipyramid) that may modify the four sided pyramids. As you can see, zircon crystals can go from a very simple crystal to a rather complexly faceted form.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
Color is brown, red, yellow, green, blue, black, and colorless.
Luster is adamantine.
Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System tetragonal; 4/m 2/m 2/m
Crystal Habits: dipyramidal and prismatic as discussed above.
Cleavage indistinct in two directions, prismatic.
Fracture is uneven
Hardness is 7.5
Specific Gravity is 4.6-4.7
Streak white Associated Minerals albite, biotite, garnets, xenotime and monazite.
Other Characteristics: is sometimes fluorescent and darker crystals may be radioactive due to impurities of rare earth elements. Also index of refraction is 1.92 - 2.01
Notable Occurances Seiland, Norway; Pakistan; Russia; Bancroft and Sudbury, Ontario, Canada and New Jersey and Colorado, USA.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, hardness, luster and density.