Zircon occurs in an array of colours. Its wide and varied palette of yellow, green, red, reddish-brown, and blue hues makes it a favourite among collectors as well as informed consumers.

Colourless zircon is well known for its brilliance and flashes of multicoloured light, called fire. These two zircon properties are close enough to the properties of diamond to account for centuries of confusion between the two gems.

Zircon crystals grow in many different types of rock and possess a range of optical and physical properties.

Virtually all the zircons used in jewellery are of the high type. Interestingly, a radiation-induced crystal-structure breakdown can be reversed somewhat by heating zircon to high temperatures. High-temperature heat treatment repairs the stone’s damaged crystal structure.