ZIRCON

Zircon is a colourful gem with high refraction and fire that’s unfairly confused with cubic zirconia.

Colourless zircon is well known for its brilliance and flashes of multi-coloured light, called fire. These two zircon properties are close enough to the properties of diamond to account for centuries of confusion between the two gems.

Zircon occurs in an array of colours. Its wide and varied palette of yellow, green, red, reddish brown, and blue hues makes it a favourite among collectors as well as informed consumers.

Zircon crystals grow in many different types of rock and possess a range of optical and physical properties.

Some gemmologists classify zircons into three types—high, intermediate, and low. A zircon’s classification depends on its properties, which are directly related to the amount of radiation-induced damage done to its crystal structure.

High or normal zircons have full crystal structures, with little or no damage from radioactive elements. As a result, they have the normal physical and optical properties associated with the mineral.

In intermediate or medium zircons, radioactive elements have caused some structural damage. They have physical and optical properties that are between high and low types.

Virtually all the zircons used in jewellery are of the high type.

Many people have heard of Zircon but never seen it. This is mostly because of colourless zircon’s wide use as a diamond simulant in the early 1900s. It was long ago replaced in that role by more convincing look-alikes, but its name still means “imitation” to many people. That’s unfortunate because zircon is a beautiful coloured stone with its own fair share of folklore and charm.

Zircon is another recognised Birthstone for the month of December.