Il­me­nite/ Zir­con /Ru­tile

Zir­cons

Zir­cons are com­merci­al­ly mi­ned for the me­tal zir­co­ni­um, and are used for ab­ra­sive and in­su­lating pur­po­ses.

It is the so­ur­ce of zir­co­ni­um oxi­de (ZrO2), one of the most ref­racto­ry ma­teri­als known.

Lar­ge spe­cimens are app­re­ci­ated as gems­to­nes, owing to the­ir high ref­racti­ve in­dex. (Zir­con has a ref­racti­ve in­dex of app­ro­xima­tely 1.95; di­amond’s is app­ro­xima­tely 2.4.)

Zir­con is one of the key mi­nerals used by ge­olo­gists for ge­och­ro­nolo­gy.

Zir­con is a part of the ZTR in­dex to clas­si­fy high­ly-we­at­he­red se­diments

il­me­nite

Sin­ce its dis­co­very, the mi­neral il­me­nite has grown gre­at­ly in its im­portan­ce. It is now the most im­portant ore of ti­tani­um. Ti­tani­um was at one ti­me a me­tal that had litt­le use and ba­sical­ly no one knew what to do with it. Even as la­te as 1946 when the me­tal was fi­nal­ly shown to be ca­pab­le of be­ing pro­duced com­merci­al­ly, it was con­si­dered a «la­bora­tory cu­ri­osi­ty». Sin­ce that ti­me, ti­tani­um has be­en shown to be a strong alu­minum-li­ke me­tal; light we­ight, non-cor­ro­sive, ab­le to with­stand tem­pe­ratu­re ext­re­mes (es­pe­ci­al­ly its high mel­ting po­int, 1800 deg­re­es C) and it has go­od strength (as strong as ste­el and twi­ce as strong as alu­minum). Ti­tani­um al­lo­ys ha­ve fo­und ma­ny app­li­cati­ons in high tech airp­la­nes, mis­si­les, spa­ce ve­hic­les and even in sur­gi­cal imp­lants.

Ru­tile

Ru­tile, when pre­sent in lar­ge eno­ugh qu­an­ti­ti­es in be­ach sands, forms an im­portant cons­ti­tu­ent of he­avy mi­neral sands ore de­posits. Mi­ners ext­ract and se­para­te the va­lu­ab­le mi­nerals (ty­pical­ly ru­tile, zir­con, and il­me­nite). The ma­in uses for ru­tile are the ma­nufac­tu­re of ref­racto­ry ce­ramic, as a pig­ment, and for the pro­duc­ti­on of ti­tani­um me­tal.

Fi­nely pow­de­red ru­tile is a bril­li­ant whi­te pig­ment and is used in pa­ints, plas­tics, pa­per, fo­ods, and ot­her app­li­cati­ons that call for a bright whi­te co­lor. Ti­tani­um di­oxi­de pig­ment is the sing­le gre­atest use of ti­tani­um worl­dwi­de. Na­nos­ca­le par­ticles of ru­tile are trans­pa­rent to vi­sib­le light but are high­ly ef­fecti­ve in the ab­sorp­ti­on of ult­ra­vi­olet ra­di­ation. The UV ab­sorp­ti­on of na­no-si­zed ru­tile par­ticles is blue-shif­ted co­pared to bulk ru­tile, so that hig­her ener­gy UV light is ab­sorbed by the na­nopar­ticles. Hen­ce, they are used in suns­cre­ens to pro­tect aga­inst UV in­du­ced skin da­mage.

Small ru­tile ne­ed­les pre­sent in gems are res­ponsib­le for an op­ti­cal phe­nome­non known as as­te­rism. As­te­rated gems are known as «star» gems. Star sapp­hi­res, star ru­bi­es, and ot­her «star» gems are high­ly so­ught af­ter and of­ten mo­re va­lu­ab­le than the­ir nor­mal equi­valents.

Ru­tile is wi­dely used as a wel­ding elect­ro­de co­vering.

Ru­tile is a part of the ZTR in­dex to clas­si­fy high­ly-we­at­he­red se­diments.