Zircon  brown, green, pale-blue, red, orange, golden-yellow, grayish or colourless neosilicate mineral occurring in tetragonal prisms. It is the chief source of zirconium; the colourless varieties provide brilliant gemstones. Also known as hyacinth, jacinth, zirconite. It shows conchoidal fracture and cleavage visible in one direction. Its hardness is 7 on Moh's scale. It occurs in granites, syenites, schists and crystalline limestones. Zircon is occasionally radioactive because of the presence of thorium and uranium, replacing zirconium in the structure. The presence of thorium and uranium makes it a useful mineral for the age determination of such rocks. It is a principal source of zirconium and hafnium for industry and is extracted from sands, the most important sources being beach deposits. In Bangladesh zircon is found as beach sand heavy mineral placer deposits on the sea beaches and coastal islands of Cox's Bazar, Chittagong, Noakhali and Patuakhali districts. It occurs mostly with fine to very fine sand grains. Generally the sands containing it are even finer than the sands containing Ilmenite, garnet and Rutile. The highest concentration of zircon, reported from Shilkhali, is 7%, the lowest concentration is 1% and the average is 4%. The reserve of zircon in Bangladesh is about 158,117 thousand ton (see table with figures in tons).

Locality	Raw Sand	Heavy Mineral	Zircon
Badarmokam (Cox's Bazar)	1,765,000	411,000	4,932
Sabrang (Cox's Bazar)	347,558	68,582	4,184
Teknaf (Cox's Bazar)	1,939,580	442,291	28,306
Shilkhali (Cox's Bazar)	2,756,828	489,714	33,300
Inani (Cox's Bazar)	729,286	175,476	10,880
Cox's Bazar	5,119,000	920,000	23,000
Maheshkhali Island (Cox's Bazar)	4,114,230	784,210	37,122
Matarbari Island (Cox's Bazar)	69,030	15,215	794
Nijhum Island (Noakhali)	379,337	96,348	2,052
Kutubdia Island (Cox's Bazar)	404,646	120,000	3,900
Kuakata (Patuakhali)	2,872,486	831,668	9,647
Total	20,496,981	4,354,504	158,117
Source Badrul Imam, Bangladesher Khaniz Sampad, 1996