Major use for Zircon:

•  In ceramic glazes – ceramic tiles, etc.

•  In the foundry and refractory industries

•  Zirconium chemicals industry

•  TV glass

•  Zirconium metal

•  Zircon market has experienced about 5 years of tightness in supply

•  World stocks have been reduced to very low levels

•  Over the next 5 years - due to large reductions amongst current producers plus ongoing

consumption - about 40% of existing world production needs to be replaced in order to

sustain the market

•  The Zircon industry now has a very high dependency on new projects coming on stream. This high level of dependency is unprecedented in the history of Zircon.

(source: TZMI, independent analyst to the zircon industry)



The major growth area has been ceramics and this pattern is forecast to continue. Importantly, ceramic tiles are the material of choice in many of the high-growth countries around the world such as China and many markets around South East Asia, Middle East, India, Latin America, Spain and Italy. High grade Zircon is required for use in the ceramics industry.

Over the variously spread mining areas in Guinea extracted mineral compositions contains 4-15% Zircon. Zircon is a co product of Rutile and Ilmenite extractions. Zircon is also a very important material to construct nuclear power plants.