Source: Australia, Brazil, Burma (Myanmar), Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, USA (Montana)
Birthstone: September (Alternate: Lapis)
The name "Sapphire" (Saphir French or German, Zafir Spanish, Zaffiro Italian) is originally derived from Greek (sappheiros), the Sanskrit word sanipruja ("dear to Saturn"), and the Hebrew word sappir, meaning gem. The biblical Sapphira was a woman who was executed by God for lying. The oldest Sapphire mines are situated in Ceylon, or Sri Lanka.
Sapphire belongs to the same "aluminium oxide" mineral family (corundum) as Ruby, but sapphire is more abundant than ruby due to the larger occurrence of its coloring agents. Sapphires (Corundum) have a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale. Corundum has no cleavage planes, but does have a conchoidal fracture, and can be parted more easily in certain directions. The Toughness of Sapphire is Excellent. Sapphire is categorized in the trigonal crystal system with a crystal habit of forming into a six-sided barrel-shape tapering into a pyramid (below). Sapphire has a refractive index of 1.760.
Chemical composition: BeAl2O3
The blue coloration of sapphire is due to charge transfer involving Iron (Fe) and Titanium (Ti). There is also a pink variety of sapphire which is heat-treated. The primary origin of sapphire is alluvial. Both Sapphires and rubies exhibit double refraction, which resolves a beam of incident light into two beams which emerge with different colors. These two gems also sometimes exhibit a six-pointed "star" or "asteriated" effect from reflection off microscopic, needle-shaped rutile crystals which intersect at 60° angles. When these stones are cut in a cabochon shape, they display this star-shaped light pattern giving them the name "Star Sapphire".
Color Grading of Blue Sapphire
Genstone color grading is broken into three quantifiable categories: intensity (saturation), hue (color), and tone (lightness/darkness). The GIA specifies thirty one gemstone individual hues. Relating to sapphire, terms such as "blue", "slightly greenish blue", "very slightly greenish blue" are used to describe color tendencies. The color-grading nomenclature also specifies six levels of saturation ranging from "grayish" (neutral grey) to "moderately strong" to "vivid", and nine levels of tone ranging from "very very light" to "very very dark." A numerical value is assigned to each label for use in a gemstone color grading report.
For a Sapphire to receive a 10 quality rating it would have a "violetish/blue" hue, with a 6 or "medium dark" tone and 6 or "vivid" saturation.
To label specific colors of blue sapphire, the "color" is commonly referred to as: Ceylon Blue, Cornflower Blue, Electric Blue, Kashmir Blue, Royal Blue, Sky Blue, Velvet Blue, and Violet Blue. The most desirable sapphire colors are an intense, pure, primary blue with little gray or green components and a slight hint of violet. High-quality Kashmir (velvet) blue and Cornflower blue sapphires will maintain their color and intensity under a variety of lighting conditions from bright sunlight to dim artificial light.
Color Zoning in Sapphire
Sapphire can exhibit moderate to strong color zoning, caused by growth layers as the crystal is formed. On the other hand, sapphire from Burma can have a very uniform color with little or no color zoning. The color zoning may appear as concentric hexagonal rings (below, left), parallel to the prismatic crystal faces. Adept stone cutters will insure that the faceted stone has some color in the culet to enhance the color when viewed through the table and crown. From the side however, these stones will have little color.
Kashmir Sapphire
Historically, the finest sapphire in the world, having the most intense, vivid blue hue (Kashmir Blue) had originated from India's northwestern region of Kashmir, along the Pakistani boarder, in the Himalayas. This region was mined heavily during a brief eight year period in the late 1800's, after a earthquake-induced landslide revealed the sapphire find. Sadly, the region was fully depleted by the early 1900's, and is no longer a significant source of sapphire.
Mogok's Sapphire & Ruby Mining
Second only to Kashmir, the world's finest sapphires, rubies and spinels have been found in the Mogok Stone Tract of the high-altitude Mogok Valley, about 175 km northeast of Mandalay, in Myanmar (Burma). The name "Mogok" is derived from the Burmese word Bamar Moegokesetwaing or "horizon." In the 4,800 square kilometer area that comprises the Mogok Valley, there are over 1000 ruby and sapphire mines. In 1972 the world's largest sapphire (63,000 carats) was found in the Mogkok valley.
Mining operations are conducted by state-owned mining enterprises such as Myanma Gems Enterprise (MGE) and Myanmar Economic Holdings (MEH). MGE mines rubies and sapphires at the Yadana Kadeikada Mine, Linyaung Chi Gem Mine, and the Shwe Pyi Aye Gem Mine, all near Kyaukpyattha Village in Mogok. Ruby and jade mining also take place within the Mongshu Stone Tract in Eastern Myanmar.
Photo Attribution - Public Domain
In the early 1990s, the Thai border town of Mae Sai was the main entry point for smuggled Mong Hsu sapphires and rubies coming from Burma. In 1995 the Myanmar government cracked down on smuggling operations by closing the ruby markets in the town of Taunggyi. Burma's former capital city of Yangon (Rangoon) is now the "officially sanctioned" gem-trading capital within Myanmar.
The name "Mogok" is derived from the Burmese word Bamar Moegokesetwaing or "horizon." In the 4,800 square kilometer area that comprises the Mogok Valley, there are over 1000 ruby and sapphire mines.
Sapphire from Madagascar, Sri Lanka & Tanzania
With the decline in production of Burmese and Thai sapphire in recent years, Madagascar and Sri Lanka have been increasingly important sources for new material. Madagascar sapphire is found in the Andranondambo and Ilakaka mining regions.
Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Yellow Sapphire called "pushparaga" in Singhalese, can be comparable in value to Mogok Ruby or even to diamond. There is also a very rare orange-pink or red-orange Sri Lankan variety called "Padparadscha sapphire." The principle mining area of Sri Lanka is situated around Ratnapura (City of Gems) 60 miles southeast of Colombo. Ceylon yellow sapphires display a pure "canary yellow" compared to other varieties of yellow sapphire.
A unique reddish-pink to mandarin orange Tanzanian sapphire was discovered in the Umba Valley during the 1960s. This variety was found in the Gerevi Hills and Lelatema Mountains north of the Umba River, in the Arusha Region of Tanzania. The Tundouro mine in Tanzania produces a yellow sapphire with more of a greenish-yellow tone.
On To:
Burmese Mong Hsu & Mogok Sapphire
Madagascar Sapphire
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Sapphire
Considered an unethical practice by today's standards, the "lattice diffusion," "beryllium diffusion" or "deep diffusion" process uses iron and titanium powders that are heated to 2000 degrees Celsius to change the natural white sapphire color to a more unnatural blue color. Beryllium diffusion is also used to create the yellow or orange-yellow Padparadscha 'colored' sapphire.
Sapphire is often heat-treated (high vacuum, high temperature) to bring out the deep blue color that is characteristic of the stone. Heat treatment of sapphire is done using a combination of chemicals such as beryllium, boron, cobalt, and magnesium. Heat-treated Sapphire can often be identified by its characteristic inclusions or "decrepitation" feathers, and small discoid fractures that appear around natural mineral inclusions.
Photo - Dan Dennis
Much of the blue sapphire from Madagascar (above, left) is heat-treated in Thailand before exporting to Europe and America. Sapphire Corundum is also heat-treated to create Pink Sapphire and (Pukhraj) Yellow Sapphire (above, right). Pale yellow Sapphires from Thailand are heat-treated to produce a "canary yellow", golden, or orange yellow color.
Colorless sapphire from Sri Lanka (geuda) is commonly heat-treated to produce a pastel bright-blue color.
NOTE: Unheated "natural" sapphires will usually sell for 4 to 5 times the price of heat-treated sapphire.
Synthetic Sapphire
Synthetic corundum (sapphire or ruby) was the first gemstone to be reproduced by artificial means using the "flame-fusion" method (aka Verneuil Process), invented by a French chemist named Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil in 1902. Diamondite, a diamond simulant popular in the early 1900's, is actually synthetic colorless sapphire produced by the flame-fusion method. The Verneuil Process has been replaced by the Flux-Grown method which produces high-quality gem-grade sapphire.
Synthetic blue sapphire is currently being produced by Chatham Created Gems in San Francisco, California. Synthetic star sapphire was developed in the late 1940's by Union Carbide under the name "Linde Stars." Synthetic star sapphire is currently being produced by Nakazumi Earth Crystals in Osaka, Japan.
A jeweler's loupe can detect the difference between the straight growth lines found in natural sapphire, and the curved growth lines found in synthetic sapphire. By using a microscope, synthetic sapphire can be identified by observing characteristic inclusions or feathers.
Reference Credits & Info on Heat Treatment & Enhancment of Sapphire
Canadian Institute of Gemmology, The Gemstone Inclusion Library - Sapphire 
. www.cigem.ca
AIGS, Understanding Sapphire Heat Treatment www.aigslaboratory.com
GemResearch Swisslab, Ruby & Sapphire Inclusions Album . www.gemresearch.ch
GIT, Fracture Filled Orangey Pink Sapphire with Lead Glass www.git.or.th
AGTA, Gemological Testing Center . www.agta-gtc.org
Bibliography & Suggestions for Further Study on Sapphires
Ted Themelis, Mogok: Valley of Rubies & Sapphires A & T Publishing, Los Angeles
Richard W. Hughes, Ruby and Sapphire . RWH Publishing
Emporia State, Ruby and Sapphire - Varieties of Corundum . Emporia State University
Judith Osmer, Ruby and Sapphire . RWH Publishing
Pala Gems, Kashmir Sapphire Mines . www.palagems.com
G Du Toit, R Hughes, J Koivula. Beryllium-Treated Blue Sapphires . AGTA Gemological Testing Center
Judith Crowe, The Jeweler's Directory of Gemstones . DK Publishing.
Cally Hall, Gemstones . Simon & Schuster.
Walter Schumann, Gemstones of the World . NAG Press; 2Rev Ed edition
Renee Newman, Gemstone Buying Guide . International Jewelry Publications; 2nd edition
Antoinette L . Matlins, Antonio C. Bonanno, Gem Identification Made Easy . Gemstone Press; 3rd edition
Paul R. Shaffer, Herbert S. Zim, Raymond Perlman, Rocks, Gems and Minerals . Martin's Press
R. V. Dietrich, Brian J. Skinner, Gems, Granites, and Gravels . Cambridge University Press
Wikipedia, The Free Encycloedia Wikipedia - Sapphire . Wikipedia
