Zirconium: Encyclopedia II - Zirconium - Occurrence

Zirconium - Occurrence

Zirconium is never found in nature as a free metal. The principal economic source of zirconium is the zirconium silicate mineral, zircon (ZrSiO₄), which is found in deposits located in Australia, Brazil, India, Russia, and the United States. (It is extracted as a dark sooty powder, or as a gray metallic crystalline substance). Zirconium and hafnium are contained in zircon at a ratio of about 50 to 1 and are difficult to separate. Zircon is a coproduct or byproduct of the mining and processing of heavy-mineral sands for the titanium minerals, ilmenite and rutile, or tin minerals. Zirconium is also in 30 other recognized mineral species including baddeleyite. This metal is commercially produced by reduction of the Zirconium(IV) chloride with magnesium in the Kroll process, and through other methods. Commercial-quality zirconium still has a content of 1 to 3% hafnium.

This element is also abundant in S-type stars and has been detected in the sun and meteorites. Lunar rock samples brought back from several Apollo program missions to the moon have a very high zirconium oxide content relative to terrestrial rocks.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Occurrence", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki