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The mining news about Cambodian blue zircon is good and bad. The good news: availability remains the same. The bad news: availability remains the same.

Deep-blue zircon is never plentiful because it is a one-source gem found mostly—some say only—in northwestern Cambodia at Rattanakiri some 40 kilometers from the Cambodian-Vietnamese border. True, zircon is also found in Sri Lanka, but its blues don’t have the bite and bounce of Southeast Asian stones. Indeed, Sri Lanka is known for zircon colors other than blue.

Zircon, like tanzanite, must be heated to attain the color for which it is prized. Since most Cambodian material winds up in Bangkok, it benefits from decades of Thai furnace finesse. One can’t help but wonder what might happen if Sri Lanka were to develop color-craft technology on a par with Thailand. Would the industry start to see better-grade blue zircon coming from that gem-rich country as well?

In any case, when used properly, oven alchemy turns blue-able zircons from reddish, orangey, and yellowish-browns to magnificent stable shades of a color that Nagpal describes as “menthol with a hint of mint.” “There’s always some green in the stone,” he continues, “but you wouldn’t call it a green gem.” He’s right. It’s blue. How ironic, then, that a gem most people now think of as blue—thanks to heating—derives its name from an Arabic color word zargoon meaning vermilion.

Heating does not guarantee glory for zircon. No more than 15 percent of Cambodia’s production is blue-able to the extent that Nagpal and other aficionados would like. Of course, part of the problem is size. Zircons need mass for class. So another 20 percent of the material is handicapped in terms of color intensity by the fact that it is cut in smaller sizes. At best, these stones tend to be pleasing rather than punchy. If you want the full wallop of blue zircon, you’ll have to go for sizes of 4 carats or more