Production
Zirconium is a by-product of the mining and processing of the titanium minerals ilmenite and rutile, as well as tin mining. From 2003 to 2007, zircon prices have steadily increased from $360 to $840 per metric ton.
Upon being collected from coastal waters, zircon-containing sand is purified by spiral concentrators to remove lighter materials, which are then placed back into the water safely, as they are all natural components of beach sand. Using magnetic separators, the titanium ores ilmenite and rutile are removed.
Most zircon is used directly in commercial applications, but a few percent is converted to the metal. Most Zr metal is produced by the reduction of the zirconium(IV) chloride with magnesium metal in the Kroll process. Commercial-quality zirconium for most uses still has a content of 1% to 3% hafnium. This contaminant is unimportant except in nuclear applications. The resulting metal is sintered until sufficiently ductile for metalworking.
Read more about this topic: Zirconium
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“Constant revolutionizing of production ... distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
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—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)