HELENA — The Missouri River near Helena is a hot spot for sapphire mining in the summer, but only certain sapphires can be transformed from rugged rocks to shining jewelry.
"In the cartoons growing up, you see they discover these jewels, and they're already cut, and they're already beautiful - it's just simply not how it works," said Dillon Ewals, the personal jeweler and owner of Big Sky Brilliance.
He says it boils down to "not all rough is created equal" - some sapphires may be too small or have too many fractures and damage to be used.
Ewals says specific shapes of the uncut sapphires may only be able to be made into specific shapes for the finished product.
Cass Thompson, the co-owner of the Spokane Bar and Eldorado Sapphire Mines, echos these parameters.
He said, "A sapphire as small as one karat can be faceted, cut, and turned into jewelry as long as it's a starting point where it's nice, clean, and clear."
The sapphire mines are open for the public to sift through sapphire gravel or go on guided hand digs.
"I've seen it from wedding rings. I've seen it from engagement rings," Thompson said. "I've seen it as simple as a nine-year-old girl wanting a new set of earrings and finding stones worthy of being earrings."
While it may be cheaper to send your finds overseas to be cut, Ewals says to consider someone in the United States, as they are more likely to assess the rough and give you more ideas for the shapes and sizes it can yield.
"You may end up with something that doesn't fit that calibrated size, and then you ultimately end up with a stone that has to have something custom-made for it, which just creates a big barrier to entry," Ewalz said.
He and Thompson say the best way to determine whether a sapphire could be used for jewelry is to get it assessed before getting in faceted.
