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Zirconium is the 20th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and it most often occurs in the form of silicate (as zircon), less often in the oxide form (as baddeleyite or caldesite). Historically, the world's production of zircon was entirely derived from mining and processing beach sands or heavy mineral sands that were being exploited primarily for their titanium content, i.e., to generate TiO2 feedstocks that would be used for making titanium pigments and, to a lesser extent, titanium metal. Zircon was then regarded as a byproduct, with the sharply fluctuating prices typical of a commodity where the supply is essentially involuntary and not truly responsive to market demand.
However, in recent years, zircon has shown considerable mining investment appeal in its own right. Projects have been planned - and some have already come to fruition - based mainly on the zircon potential of the deposit. Booming Chinese demand for zircon to meet the requirements of the ceramic and zirconium chemical sectors has been a major factor causing zircon prices (f.o.b. Australia) to surge from US$674/t ($611/st) at the end of 2005 to beyond US$2,400/t ($2,177/st) by the end of 2011.
Identified world resources of zircon currently exceed 60 Mt (66 million st), about 30 percent of which is accounted for by Australia, 25 percent by South Africa and 25 percent by the United States. At current rates of extraction, total identified resources are sufficient to last for more than 40 years. In addition, substantial and unquantified amounts of zircon are found hi phosphate, sand and gravel deposits.
During the past 20 to 25 years, there have been major changes in the structure of global zircon consumption. Prior to the mid-1980s, the most important end-use sector was the refractories sector and Japan was by far the most important market for zircon in refractories. The use of zircon in foundry sands for iron and steel castings was also well established, especially in the U.S., where this application typically accounted for about 50 percent of consumption. The third most important end-use sector prior to the mid-1980s was the ceramics sector, at that time dominated by Italian and Spanish ceramic tile manufacturers.
In 1985, world zircon consumption was 694 kt (765,000 st), broken down as: 35 percent...