Zircon occurs in close association with other heavy minerals, such as, ilmenite, rutile and monazite in beach sands, along the coastal tracts of the country. Its concentration in the deposits is about 0.6-18.7% of the total heavy minerals. Indian zircons analyse 63-66% ZrO2 . The resources of zircon are placed at 33.71 million tonnes as per Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).

Production of zircon increased to 11,906 tonnes in 2018-19 from 9,107 tonnes in the preceding year.

Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL), a Government of India Undertaking; KMML, a Kerala State Government Undertaking; and V.V. Mineral, a Private Sector company are engaged actively in mining and processing of beach sands in India. Zircon is recovered by these companies as a co-product of mining/dredging of heavy mineral sands which include ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene, monazite, sillimanite and garnet. Beach sand deposits containing these minerals are obtained from coastal tracts of Manavalakurichi in Tamil Nadu, Chavara in Kerala and Gopalpur in Odisha.

(Source: IBM)

India’s top trading partners (2018) for import of zirconium ores and concentrates are:

• Australia with a share of 45% (56 million US$)
• Malaysia with a share of 21% (26 million US$)
• South Africa with a share of 16.3% (20 million US$)
• Indonesia with a share of 6% (7.42 million US$)
• Senegal with a share of 5.03% (6.22 million US$)
• USA with a share of 2.8% (3.46 million US$)
• Sri Lanka with a share of 1.06% (1.3 million US$)
  
  

India’s Titanium Reserve

Top export destinations of “Titanium ores & concs.” from India in 2018:

• China with a share of 47% (50 million US$)
• Japan with a share of 27% (28 million US$)
• Germany with a share of 7.8% (8.18 million US$)
• Malaysia with a share of 6.56% (6.88 million US$)
• Korea with a share of 6.33% (6.64 million US$)
• Belgium with a share of 3.06% (3.21 million US$)
  
  

Top trading partners (import of “Titanium ores & concs.”) of India in 2018:

• Mozambique with a share of 43% (19.1 million US$)
• China with a share of 18.4% (8.13 million US$)
• South Africa with a share of 8.17% (3.6 million US$)
• Sri Lanka with a share of 7.67% (3.38 million US$)
• Thailand with a share of 4.55% (2 million US$)
• Australia with a share of 3.97% (1.75 million US$)
• Ukraine with a share of 3.63% (1.6 million US$)