DISCOVERED IN THE hills of Sri Lanka in 1892, I didn’t attract much interest from anyone until the arrival of the nuclear age (I am one of two sources of zirconium, a structural component of nuclear reactors). Gem collectors like me, but from a jeweler’s point of view, I probably just have trivia value: I am the natural form of cubic zirconia. While our chemistry is identical, we actually don’t look much alike. CZ is a bright, highly refractive material, while I am usually opaque. It’s due to the different ways we crystallize.
Who am I?
