| 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, South Africa and the United States, reports the British Geological Survey. (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.
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Occurrence