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Its name comes from the Arabic "zargoun" muting in "jargon", meaning vermilion. It is known since antiquity, but under different names.
It may be colorless (rare), but also yellow, brown, orange, blue to blue-violet (called starlite) ... and mostly brown green and dark red, the fire red color being called hyacinth.
Its high content of radioactive elements leads to sizable variations of physical constants: cubic zirconia is called "metamict".
Its high refractivity and high dispersion give it a vivid and intense shine. There is a zircon with a chatoyancy effect.

Exploited sites

It is found in alluvial deposits, in rolled crystals, in Burma, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Brazil, Australia, Korea, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Vietnam ...
In France, the Riou Pezzouliou ore deposit, in Haute-Loire, near Le Puy en Velay, has had its moment of fame, and has delivered beautiful crystals.
It has often been confused with other stones such as tourmalines and diamond.

See pictures of the mines / other pictures

Use in jewelry

He can not bear the shocks, and high pressure. But it has a bright and intense luster. The colorless ones are brilliant or rose cut, the colored ones are step cut.

Daily care and precautions

Sensitive to shocks to the edges of its facets, otherwise stone of a beautiful shine, easy to maintain as resistant to heat, to household products. Zircons having been heated to make them blue, for example, are much more fragile.

Looking alike stones

aquamarine , andradite , chrysoberyl , diamond , grossular , hiddenite , sapphire , sinhalite , titanite , topaz , tourmaline , vesuvianite

Historical healing properties

It would be a "stone of strength", of high energy, focused on earth and it is assigned a strong power. Bringing strength, should be for all those who feel the need to compensate a weakness. The colorless one would help successful business. Containing many inclusions, some radioactive, zircon would possess a great power: to use with care. Being a red stone, it is not recommended for the aggressive, the angry, it could be used on almost all the chakras.

Imitations and treatments

By heating between 800 and 1000 ° C, the brown zircons, very common , turn to colorless or blue, but these colors are unstable.
We can synthesize zircon, but it is only of scientific interest, while the synthetic zirconium oxide is used as a substitute to diamond.
Currently, there are on the market some light blue cambodian zircons, of a beautiful effect, obtained by heating.