Zircon resources

The estimated world resources of Zr were published in 1968 (Ref 13). The United States is believed to have the largest reserves of Zr in the world, as shown in Table 2. But the recovery of Zr from domestic sources is economically feasible only as a byproduct of the Ti manufacture. Large quantities of zircon are obtainable through the mining and processing of phosphate rock. Commercial recovery of Zr from these sources is subject to the economics or Zr utilization... 

The mineral zircon (ZrSi04) occurs in nature as component of acidic igneous rocks. Their weathering yields sediments containing small crystals (sand) of zircon and further heavy minerals. These deposits are resources for industrial production. 

Placers are a low- or very low-grade uranium resource and many of their sometimes uraniferous minerals, such as monazite and zircon, are refractory and difficult to process. The low grade and refractory nature tend to make placers unattractive but, on the other hand, the volume of individual placers may be millions of cubic metres and they may contain hundreds of thousands of tons of heavy mineral concentrate. Uranium may be recovered as a by- or co-product from large placers if they also contain economic concentrations of such minerals as ilmenite, rutile, cassiterite or gold. 

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