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Ratanakkiri province is the only known large scale commercially-viable source for these coveted blue zircon stones.
Many people including some Cambodians aren’t aware of this because Cambodia’s zircons don’t start out blue. They are brown zircons that turn blue when heat-treated, but Ratanakkiri is the only place in the world where this curious variety of zircon are to be found. It is named for its locale, hailing from Ratanakiri (‘gemstone mountain’ in Khmer), a northern Cambodian deposit noted for yielding some of the world’s finest specimens.
Alice Varini, a French jeweller and gemologist emphasized Zircon is a natural, magnificent and underrated gemstone that has been worn and treasured since ancient times. It is definitely not cubic zirconia.
Zircon is one of the modern December birthstones, it is available in many colours and it looks wonderful in jewelry if set carefully.
The most dispersive gemstones ranked in order are Sphene1, Demantoid2, Diamond3 and Zircon4. Increasing natural scarcity combined with growing marketplace demand, intense competition and sporadic production, is decreasing the availability of Ratanakiri Zircon, especially over 1 carat, resulting in increased prices.
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