I recently took a trip to Western Montana, a land that feels like heaven in the summertime. Puffy clouds, snow capped mountains, sunny plains and quick flowing creeks. I met my uncle Keith there, jumped on the back of his motorcycle, and went along Rock Creek to an area well known for finding sapphires. Keith has been cutting stones for us since the inception of Dillon Rose - he is an internationally known opal cutter but also facets sapphires, garnets and emeralds for us.

The opportunity to sift gravel and unearth these precious stones with him was a delight. For every little pebble of sapphire I found, only one in 20 is large enough to cut into a faceted stone. When you facet a stone you lose 40-60% of the gem. It’s like revealing the heart of the stone, cutting away the included and cloudy edges so you’re left with the highest quality stone. The crown jewel of my trip was a 2.20 carat pink sapphire with a color saturation deep enough to be a true ruby! 

Sapphire and Ruby are both made of the mineral corundum. Corundum acquires color when other minerals are present as it forms. Chromium gives it a red color, manganese orange, iron yellow, titanium blue and vanadium purple. When there is enough chromium present to create a deep pink or red sapphire, it is known as a ruby.

I shared quite a bit about the digging process and Montana adventure on our socials. You can check that out here!