Sapphire mining

Sapphire is a type of gemstone with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium or magnesium. Gemstones generally obtain their color due to some minerals or impurities in the mineral. The impurities in corundum stones produce a wide range of colors present. Sapphire crystals can grow to large sizes (crystals weighing more than a kilogram have been found), sometimes containing inclusions of crystal needles that produce the reflection of a star of six or twelve points and these are called stellar sapphires.

Sapphire mining:

Sapphires come in many colors such as: green, yellow, purple and orange, natural sapphires are transformed and polished into gemstones and are worn in jewelry, they can also be synthetically created in laboratories for industrial or decorative purposes in large crystal balls, sapphire is also used in some non Decorations such as infrared optical components, highly durable windows, wristwatch crystals, movement bearings and ultra-thin electronic chips which are used as insulating substrates for special-purpose solid-state electronics such as integrated circuits and blue LEDs.

There are many ways to improve sapphire and clarity. This is through heating sapphire in the oven, the oven temperature reaches 1800 degrees Celsius for a few hours or even for several weeks at a time, when heating the stone becomes more blue in color, but it loses some contents, when using high temperatures (more than 1400 ° C) the dissolved rutile silk melts and becomes clear under magnification, the titanium produced by the rutile enters into a solid solution and thus creates a blue color with iron.

Impurities in natural stones can be seen easily with a lens.Evidence indicates that sapphire and other gemstones were subjected to heating in the Roman era, unheated natural stones are rather rare and often sold with certification from an independent gem laboratory attesting to the lack of evidence of processing Thermocouple, there is a rare group of natural sapphires, which have different colors in different light, color changing sapphires that are blue in outdoor light, purple under incandescent interior light or green to gray.

Sapphire is obtained from alluvial deposits or from major underground works. Commercial sapphire mining sites in many countries include: China, Kenya, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Australia, Myanmar, Burma, Cambodia, Colombia, India and the United States of America. Sapphire from different locations has different appearance or concentration of chemical impurities and tends to contain different types of microscopic impurities; Because of this sapphires can be divided into three broad categories: classical and non-classical metamorphic metamorphic or magmatic and classical magma.

Rubies from certain locations or from certain classes may be more commercially attractive than others, especially classic sapphires from Kashmir, Burma or Sri Lanka that have not undergone heat treatment. Madagascar is the world leader in sapphire production since 2007, before mines were opened. Elacaca was Australia among the most producing countries of sapphire, a new source of sapphire was discovered south of Madagascar in 1991, this region was exploited because sapphire started in 1993 but was practically abandoned after only a few years; Because of the difficulties in recovering sapphires.

The sapphire deposits in Kashmir are well known in the gem industry, although their peak production occurred in a relatively short period at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century but they have a super bright blue hue along with an almost mysterious and calm quality described by some gemstone enthusiasts as Blue velvet, Kashmiri origin contributes beneficially to the value of ruby ​​and most Corundum of Kashmir is easily identifiable by its distinctive silky appearance and exceptional color.

The unique blue color appears under any kind of light, unlike the non-Kashmiri sapphire which may appear purple or gray, in North America sapphires were mostly extracted from sediments in Montana, the fine blue Yugo sapphire was found in Yugo Gulch west of Lewistown, as well. A few sapphires made from gem stones have been found in the Franklin, North Carolina area.