Fine Coloured Stones
Zircons
Blue · Colourless · Honey · Cognac · Green · Red
Varieties
How zircons are categorised
Trade categories rather than gemological ones — these are the terms a requirement is normally written in.
- Blue Zircon
- The best-known colour; electric blue, widely calibrated.
- White Zircon
- Colourless with very high dispersion.
- Honey & Cognac Zircon
- Golden through warm brown.
- Green Zircon
- Scarcer; olive to true green.
Zircons in detail
Zircon is not cubic zirconia
Zircon is a natural mineral, zirconium silicate, mined and cut like any other gemstone. Cubic zirconia is a synthetic diamond simulant. The names are similar and the confusion is common at retail, so it is worth addressing in your own product copy.
Natural zircon has a higher refractive index and greater dispersion than sapphire, which is why well-cut white zircon shows so much fire.
Handling and setting
Zircon can be brittle at facet edges and is prone to abrasion along the girdle in transit and in tumbling parcels. It is worth specifying packaging for melee quantities.
It sets without difficulty, but avoid rough handling at the bench and protect the girdle.
Treatment
Heat treatment is standard across most commercial zircon, and it produces the blue and colourless material the market is built around. It is long-established practice. We record what is stated per stone.
This describes the market for the species. It is not a statement about any individual stone — disclosure for a specific stone comes from that stone’s own record and documentation. More on laboratory reports.
Buyer questions
Buying zircons
- Is zircon the same as cubic zirconia?
- No. Zircon is a natural mined gemstone; cubic zirconia is a manufactured diamond simulant. They are unrelated materials that happen to have similar names.
- Is blue zircon heated?
- Almost always. Heating produces the blue colour, it is long-established trade practice and it is stable.