Finding Sapphires at Two Sapphire Mines in Montana 

Very cool I'm going to order some gravel.

What was the cost for all the material you searched compared to the cut value of the stones. An estimate is fine I'm not trying to pry into your personal business. Just wondering if it was worth a trip from NJ. Thank you in advance brother ✌️

You are one of the most honest and transparent people on RU-vid. If your family were to go to either of these mines and find nothing after paying the bucket fee what would the miners say? Is it a sure thing to find something or would you just be out of luck unless you pay for more buckets?

Good question! Do all buckets guarantee sapphires?

Have you any videos on treating

he linked the website in the description. from the website: "The $40 Gravel Bucket is 2 gallons, approximately 25 pounds of 100% natural sapphire gravel and will fill the screening tool 3 or 4 times. " if he went through 12 screens, that makes it $120-160.

Thanks!! I was wondering too

We went here for the first time last year and we are going back again this year we had them heat treat and cut ours. It takes about a year to get them back we should be getting ours back by the end of this week can't wait to see what they look like

I mean he’s in immediate profit probably after 5-6 stones. Assuming they cut under 1ct finished

Money spent. Usually $40-$60 per bucket. Sapphires sell in rough $25-$100 per carat from Gem Mountain. They all need heat treatment and are small. El Dorado Bar is a great place. Clear, large stones. Rarely in need of heat treatment. Rough sells for $50-$1000 per carat. Gem Mountain is our tourist area. More meant for fun.

You basically are more likely to get rich doing anything but gambling

And it seems like a decent workout!

@@deskmat9874Unless you're the casino. :D

Aka a ruby?

​@@deantucker57 sapphires can be pink

@@paparunji2222 No they can't. If it's pink, it's called a ruby. All the pinkish to reddish hues are called ruby.

It's a ruby. And it's not a good color for a ruby, you want deep red.

​@@DarthChrisBim sorry, but sapphires CAN indeed be pink. But so can rubies. Google it.

Yeah, I really appreciate the mines allowing the public to come look for sapphires! It is a great experience and I really enjoy doing it!

Looks fun! If I lived in MT I’d be washing gravel every weekend!

There actually is a sapphire deposit in Scotland you may have some luck at

Thanks! I have started on a film of a sapphire someone else found up there that was a little bigger than the ones I found. They found a 10 carat piece of Montana Sapphire rough.

We spent 2 days at Blue Jewel and went through a total of 12 sets of buckets. Each set is 6 full buckets before running them through the jig. So that is actually 72 buckets of grave from there. You definitely have better odds of finding larger and naturally bluer stones there(not the real nice blue that everyone wants, but bluer), but it does take a lot longer to find sapphires, and you wont find as many. And yes, you are not likely to get very exotic colors from there either. Though the sapphires tend to be larger, they also have a higher tendency to be fractured. The Gem Mountain deposit is very dense with little sapphires, so you will find a lot of sapphires and faster being a lot less labor intensive. There set up is a lot more tourist friendly, but a lot of the sapphires that I find from there fall below the sizes that would be beneficial for me to cut.

I never found a ruby, only garnets.

The Gem Mountain mine has a service for cutting and heat treating; you can read about it on their website. It's relatively inexpensive if you have a large enough parcel. If you do a lucky 7, you'll have enough to make it worth your while.

thank you @@fwiffo for taking the time to explain ; )

How much is it? I’m just a geology enthusiast and would love to go for fun.

Me, too.

Nope, you are right.

@@lordeverybody872 Thank you.

I think that the color could vary from stone to stone. It could make the color more rich or possibly even dull the color. The color would also depend on the way it is heated. I know at Gem Mountain, they do two different heating burns. One is at lower heat to try and bring out fancy colors, and then there is a higher heat burn that will more likely turn the stones a bluer color.

@@MattsCornerofGemCutting thank you for the reply!

Pinks usually stay pink but might get better clarity. It's an unpredictable process though, so it could do something else.

@@fwiffo I remember seeing in another video how a bunch that looked similar before heat treating all turned out different, so that makes sense.

@@Damonnanashi There's a good video by the GIA about heat treatment of Montana Sapphires, actually at Gem Mountain. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-f1n1FvWBQEg.html

Dan Herd has a sapphire mine in Alberta

Yeah, it is an investment for sure! But I get my return off the sapphires I cut.

@@MattsCornerofGemCutting do you charge to cut for others

Thanks for your input!

I've tried that a little bit. Though, shaking and flipping the pans works well for going through lots of material quickly if you are able to get down the method right since it brings that sapphires to the center and top of the gravel after the flip.

You can find the addresses on their websites in the description. One mine is near Philipsburg, Montana. The other is near Helena, Montana.

@@MattsCornerofGemCutting thanks

I've only had sapphires heated from Gem Mountain. Here is a link to there webpage about heating. You can contact them if you want them to heat anything for you. gemmountainmt.com/heat-treating-faceting/heat-treating#:~:text=The%20cost%20of%20heat%20treating,price%20breaks%20for%20larger%20quantities.

I've cut two pink ones from that trip, but not that nicest one yet. maxfieldlapidary.etsy.com/listing/1613660829 maxfieldlapidary.etsy.com/listing/1582027392

Yep

Most Montana sapphires are some shade of green; it's the most common color by far. They don't really come in bright emerald green; it's usually a pale green, olive green, or yellowish green. You probably see less for sale because they're less popular in that color and most will be heat treated to increase their value. Trust me, if you get some Montana sapphire gravel, you'll have your fill of green ones.

If you watch the end of the video where everything is laid out on the table, I talk about what I found at each location and how much material I went through to find it. Between the jugs I purchased at Gem Mountain and the 21 buckets we went trough, we managed around 235 stones I would consider cuttable, but a lot of those fall under a carat rough weight. We did 12 sets of buckets at Blue Jewel and came home with about 115 pieces that I would consider cuttable. Between both places, there were 350 stones of which only about 150 were even over 1 carat and not very many over 2 carats. I'll be cutting mostly from the 1 carat and up stones. So there may be between 125-175 stones that I will actually cut from the trip. Most of those will only yield stone around the half carat range.

Sorry. What is the address? I've been to Gem Mtn and Spokane Bar. I'm not online.

Sapphires come in many colors, including many shades within the color ranges as well.