RARE METALS AND THEIR DESTINATION. 
97 
Metallic zirconium has been prepared but not put to 
any practical use except as an alloy with tungsten. The 
oxide is used for a great variety of purposes ; it is, for 
instance, the chief constituent of the glower of the Nernst 
lamp, enters into the composition of certain glasses and 
enamels, is used in Rontgen-therapy, and as refractory 
material in electric furnace linings, etc.f 
Zircon has been proved by both microscopic and 
chemical means to be present in many crystalline rocks in 
this State, ft can be detected in small well-formed colorless 
or smoky crystals by panning off any of our clays (e.g., 
Bellevue, Belmont, Mujar) or river or beach sands, es- 
pecially those sands which show by the presence of black 
iron compounds that they have been naturally concentrated. 
Examples of the latter kind are : — 
South Perth. — Black sand, estuary beach. 
Cottesloe. — White and black sand, sea beach. 
Koombana Bay. — Black sand, sea beach. 
Nannup. — With cassiterite in river sand. 
Greenbushes. — With cassiterite in alluvium of all kinds. 
Gooseberry Hill. — Black and white sand, stream. 
Donnelly River. — Forms large proportion and at times 
the whole of the concentrates from river sand. 
At Greenbushes zircon sand could be produced in 
commercial quantities as a by-product in tin sluicing. A 
bulk sample of about 30 lbs. weight of such sand was found 
to have the following composition : — 
Zircon sand, Greenbushes. 
Zr 0 2 
47-63 (Zr, 35.2%' 
ThO 
Ti 0 2 
17.12 
Sn 0 2 
2.83 
SiO, 
23.84 
Ce 2 0 3 
84 
Fe a 0 3 
6.30 
p 2 o 5 
83 
Undetermined 
61 
100.00 
t C. K. Bohn, Chem. Zeitung, XXXV, 1261. 
