Our sapphire mine and rock shop are open daily 9-5 seven days a week.

Personal checks and money orders can be mailed to: Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine/5360 Castles Road/Helena, MT 59602.  We also take credit cards, debit cards, phone orders at 1-877-diggems, or on-line orders at www.sapphiremine.com.

The Spokane Bar Monster Mine is from our home base mine, right out the door.  The haul distance is within gun shot.  The El Dorado Monster Mine is our other mine, located down river 8 miles by boat but 40 miles by haul truck on a terrible and dangerous road.  The haul fee is reflected in the price.  Also the El Dorado is a fantastic sapphire bearing property and is known to have big sapphires.  There are big sapphires found at both locations.  There are just a bit different.  There is more shale and calcium carbonate in the El Dorado.  More colorful minerals, such as jade, olivine, serpentine and jasper and quartz in the Spokane Bar material.

We have several products that we produce here at the Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine.  The Spokane Bar Monster Mine and the El Dorado Bar Monster Mine are authentic material concentrated with heavy equipment in a trommel and jig.  We concentrate approximately ten dump truck loads per day to sell in the mine office or through our website: www.sapphiremine.com.  We do not look at it, as it is masses of material.  We do offer two additional products, by popular demand, one is the Guaranteed Monster Mine, that we “guarantee” by adding random amounts of dark blue sapphires for the guarantee.  The other package is the Guaranteed Enhanced Monster Mine, known as the “Party Pak”.  It is authentic material from the Spokane Bar mine with added sapphires plus 1/4 cup of, mostly small, garnet.  The purpose is to entertain up to 25 people for two hours.  Every scoop of gravel contains gems.  Very often valuable sapphires are found in all our products, including the small tubs and sample bags.  Even small sapphires, finishing one quarter carat or .25- for example, are worth $25. This is a very fun, entertaining and unique hobby that many people find facinating.

Clean sapphires with good color can be worth $100 to $1000 per carat and more, finished. A good facetor helps and appraisals do the trick, as far as marketability. Large sapphires finished, one to four carat and bigger, can be up to $2,000-$5,000 a carat!! (the standard 4 C’s-color, clarity, cut, and carat weight). One carat and above is the magic number for increased values. These are Montana sapphires, which has a different appeal than overseas sapphires, that you would normally see in every jewelry store. Most jewelers buy Thai sapphires, navy blue, or Indian rubies. Other parts of the world have unique stones, that can be highly prized, such as Burma or Ceylon blues. Other mines around the world produce mass quantities of sapphires, thus common. Montana sapphires are not that plentiful. A pint jar of rough sapphires is a major amount.

We could just mine for ourselves and sell the finished gems. Being remote, it has been difficult for us to make a living doing that. Instead, our market has been the gravel sales, letting the customer find the gems. Kinda nutty, but it worked for us.

There have been multiple business opportunities from people like yourselves selling the finished product. It is not easy finding a market. Jewelers are spoiled and cannot be approached, unless you get lucky. Ebay has seemed to work for some people, though we have not been successful at that. Boutiques or gift stores seem the best store front, but that can take forever, and you can’t pay your house payment that way. The gems work well for trades. You basically have to create your own market, as with anything.

You can come  buy sapphires, in our store, or buy sapphire gravel to sort outside on the tables, complete with wash tubs and screens for sorting.  We help you identify minerals and gems and teach you how to do the washing.  There is a dig option available.  It is $60 and includes one 3.5 gallon concentrate plus a 5 gallon bucket of gravel you dig yourself out of the pit.  We go with you to instruct about how to do the dig, the geology and history.  Then we teach you the concentrating wash part.  The dig takes about 3-4 hours total.  Or you can just buy gravel and sort 1-2 hours. You can also buy material and take it with you.  We also ship Monster Mine sapphire gravel concentrates to mine at home via UPS.  All packages include shipping.  Print our flyer under “Print Map and Flyers”.  Check out the FAQ’s and Testimonials, plus Newsletters at www.sapphiremine.com.

You can use a kitchen sieve and wash a cup of gravel then spread it out on a glass pie dish.  Put a light source underneath – flashlight or lamp or use a slide table.  Once you find the sapphires – they are glassy in appearance- send them in to be faceted, using the coupon sent with your order.  You can also print another one from our website under “Faceting Services” at www.sapphiremine.com   A rock tumbler is great for the rocks, agates and minerals you find – however, it will decrease the value of the sapphires.  Sapphires should be worth $100 per carat faceted versus .10 cents when tumbled.

There is a direction card clipped to the flyer.  If lost, you can print one under “Print Flyers”-“Directions” at www.sapphiremine.com.  It helps to wash a cup or so at a time using a kitchen strainer or screen.  You can spread the gravel on a plate or better to use a clear glass pyrex pie dish with a light source underneath.  The light will shine through the gems and not the rocks.  You can either use a light table made for slides or use a flash light under the dish.  You can also cut out an old metal coffee can, mount a light bulb in it, and put a piece of glass or a pie dish over it and pour some gravel in.  Direct sunlight outside is also good to search for the sapphires.  Gold nuggets can at times be found as well as unusual minerals such as topaz.  The rocks in outdoor sunlight will appear in varied colors – green is often serpentine, dark green is olivine, at times jade can be found.  Also found – jasper-reddish, lots of quartz, and agate-waxy.  Shale will be sharp – not water-worn like most of the gravel.  If you hit any of the sapphires with a hammer you will ruin them.  Sapphires will often have a hexagonal crystal structure.  A clear sapphire the size of a mustard seed can be about 1/3 to 1/2 carat and have a finished value of $20-$50 bucks.  Clear and colorful sapphires larger than a pea can have a finished value of $100-$1000 bucks.Look under “Testimonials” on our website for photos sent in by other customers.  Also FAQ for questions and answers at www.sapphiremine.com  Knowing how valuable sapphires can be – you’ll end up looking at every rock.

You can buy a light table from Logan Electric Specialty Mgf. Co in Chicago, IL, 60622, model 920.  Pricey though.  Try Walmart or a photo shop for a slide table for photographs.  We use light tables to help pick out the sapphires.  Light will shine through the sapphires and garnets but not the rocks. You could miss gold nuggets on a light table, however.

The material has to be processed.  The gravel dug from the Spokane Bar is 20 feet deep.  We must remove 15 plus feet of overburden then dig the remaining gravel down as deep into the bedrock as possible.  Then we haul it out of the pit with dump trucks and stockpile the gravel.  Our trommel is started, pumping water over 100 feet up from the lake.  The gravel gets sorted through the trommel, taking out the boulders, sand and sizing the material.  It then goes into another machine, called a jig.  That machine separates the gravel by specific gravity.  The heavy material is then hauled into the office and sacked.  (We try to dry it first)  It is quite a process.  You would not want just raw material as you must process through ten dump truck loads to get any sapphires.  I wish they were more plentiful but that is why they are valuable.

Hand digging is another matter.  It still takes a lot of work to loosen the gravel (like digging into concrete), screen it – sorting out the boulders and sand, and then concentrating it by hand using double meshed screens in tubs of water.  It is a slow process and again, not as rich as you would hope.  The old saying “you can be an inch from a million dollars or a million inches from a dollar” applies.  It only takes one good sapphire to make it pay, however, not like gold – which takes one level teaspoon to make an ounce (lots of flakes and specks).

There can be gold in the garnet gravel.  Gold is heavy and a gold colored metal.  The flakes you are seeing are probably mica.  If you can cut it in half with your fingernail – it is mica.  Both mica and pyrite are shiny and brassy.  Gold does not shine.

The red stones are probably garnet.  There are about 8 varieties of garnet.  Rubies can also be found – but they will have a hexagonal shape.

You can put your sapphires at the edge of a light and roll them around in your fingers.  You should be able to see all the fractures and inclusions.  Some of those can be ground away and still have a salvageable gem.  I just leave it up to the cutters.  They are masters at getting the gem quality stone.

Heat treating can definitely improve the color and clean up the impurities.  If the stone is hazy it will definitely help.  I don’t do all of them – only a special few.  I prefer the natural.  However, the treated sapphires sell faster as most people want the deeper color.

We advertise the gravel we sell in the office on our flyer which ranges between $25 and $75.  We do have sample bags for $5 which is about a screenfull.  Our dig option can be shared with the family.  It is $60 total and includes one large concentrate plus digging a five gallon bucket in the mine.  We provide screens and shovels – some buckets.  It is wise to bring your own bucket in case you want to take material home.  Also a screwdriver for digging into cracks and crevices if you do the dig.  Tweezers are helpful – we do sell them for $3 in the shop.

The E-Eldorado Monster Mine costs more due to the haul fees-40 miles on a bad road with big haul trucks.  The El Dorado is new mining property we acquired last October.  It is similar material.  So far – I have noticed the El Dorado sapphires seem to be bigger.  The Spokane Bar Monster Mine material seems to have more colors.  El Dorado has a bit more debris- such as twigs and roots – as the gravel is only four feet deep compared to Spokane Bar – of 30 feet.  Lots of people try both and compare.  You can view some comments about the differences under “Testimonials”.

All of our sapphire gravel packages include UPS shipping costs.  The authentic, screened and concentrated through a big machine, untouched – is the regular Spokane Bar Monster Mine for $95 or the Eldorado Bar Monster Mine for $120. The other two packages are spiked (Guaranteed Monster Mine) or the Party Pak (guaranteed and enhanced with 1/4 cup of garnets-small-for entertaining guests). Sapphires are four times heavier than water and not only sink to the bottom of the river, but have managed to adhere to the bedrock and have cemented into tight packed gravel layers.  There has been some down river movement in tumultuous flood times, but only up to a twenty mile stretch. There are a couple good locator booklets called Western Gem Hunters Atlas, Eastern Gem Hunters Atlas and a Coast to Coast Gem Hunters Atlas.  We order them every summer.

You can look at our products at www.sapphiremine.com. You can order on line or call me at 1-877-dig gems. (344-4367) Current prices (subject to change) for the regular Spokane Bar Monster Mine (our home base) – $95 includes shipping. El Dorado is $120. El Dorado is our mine that is 18 miles away on a bad road. It costs more to get it here-though tends to have bigger sapphires at times. El Dorado usually has more hematite (iron) and shale. Spokane Bar gravel is more colorful with different minerals-serpentine (green), quartz, agate, jasper. The Guaranteed $120 is from Spokane Bar material though added sapphires for the guarantee. Party Pak is also from Spokane Bar but added sapphires and 1/4 cup small garnets (occasional big garnets too). This pak is designed to entertain up to 20 people for two hours of fun-$150 (great for reunions and parties). The Monster Mine bags often include a monthly special. This month (April 08) a 2-3 mm faceted sapphire through April 15th. We have lots of other items for sale including screens, gem pickup tools and gem kits. Read about recent finds in each newsletter on our website – www.sapphiremine.com.

Sapphires are glassy, tint of color, have sides on them and are heavy. Read the big direction card for more clues. Rubies are very rare so probably you found garnets. There are red or orange melded jaspers, green pale serpentine, darker green jade, waxy white or brown agates, blazay white, off-white, yellow quartz that will turn white in your hand. Sapphires will still appear glassy in your hand. Hematite is black, blobby, sometimes seed pod fossils or cubes, single or group cubes that look like raspberries. Mostly you have pretty rocks that can be used for crafts.

The clear sapphires and garnets can be faceted and have values ranging from $25 to $100 for medium grade. Better sapphires finishing over one carat can double in value and at times be in the thousands.

Clean sapphires with good color can be worth $100 to $1000 per carat and more, finished. A good facetor helps and appraisals do the trick, as far as marketability. Large sapphires finished, one to four carat and bigger, can be up to $2,000-$5,000 a carat!! (the standard 4 C’s-color, clarity, cut, and carat weight). One carat and above is the magic number for increased values. These are Montana sapphires, which has a different appeal than overseas sapphires, that you would normally see in every jewelry store. Most jewelers buy Thai sapphires, navy blue, or Indian rubies. Other parts of the world have unique stones, that can be highly prized, such as Burma or Ceylon blues. Other mines around the world produce mass quantities of sapphires, thus common. Montana sapphires are not that plentiful. A pint jar of rough sapphires is a major amount.

We could just mine for ourselves and sell the finished gems. Being remote, it has been difficult for us to make a living doing that. Instead, our market has been the gravel sales, letting the customer find the gems. Kinda nutty, but it worked for us.

There have been multiple business opportunities from people like yourselves selling the finished product. It is not easy finding a market. Jewelers are spoiled and cannot be approached, unless you get lucky. Ebay has seemed to work for some people, though we have not been successful at that. Boutiques or gift stores seem the best store front, but that can take forever, and you can’t pay your house payment that way. The gems work well for trades. You basically have to create your own market, as with anything.

The faceting prices are on the back of the coupon.  They run about $7 a finished carat for sapphires.  You can print another coupon from our site at www.sapphiremine.com under “Faceting Services”.  Scoll to the bottom of the page and print.  The “Winter Garnet Gravel” is just garnet material from a different mine.  We named it Winter a couple years ago when it was snowing and we were depressed.  The sparkly garnets seemed to cheer us up.  The other gravel is mined here at the Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine plus our other mine the Ed Dorado.

Faceting will take away 2/3rd of the stone plus more if the stone has fractures or flaws that should be ground away.  A three carat rough piece ideally will yield a one carat finished gem. Gem cutters grind to the proper shape for the best light refraction for a finished gemstone.  Most rough stones have flaws.  If there is any way to get a clean stone, I will grind as many of the flaws out as possible to yield a more valuable, finished gem. Most cutters will cut for yield.  An oblong shaped stone would be best suited for an emerald cut or oval.  The people that do the cutting want to make as much money as possible and they will cut for shape as that will save weight.  They get paid for the finished weight.

You can put your sapphires at the edge of a light and roll them around in your fingers.  You should be able to see all the fractures and inclusions.  Some of those can be ground away and still have a salvageable gem.  I just leave it up to the cutters.  They are masters at getting the gem quality stone.

Heat treating can definitely improve the color and clean up the impurities.  If the stone is hazy it will definitely help.  I don’t do all of them – only a special few.  I prefer the natural.  However, the treated sapphires sell faster as most people want the deeper color.

The value of the sapphires ranges from $100 a carat up to $1000 a carat.  A half carat (.50) would be $50 as there are 100 points in a carat.  Stones that finish over a carat can double in price or more.  The four “C’s” apply – color, carat weight, cut and clarity, as far as values go.

The E-Eldorado Monster Mine costs more due to the haul fees-40 miles on a bad road with big haul trucks.  The El Dorado is new mining property we acquired last October.  It is similar material.  So far – I have noticed the El Dorado sapphires seem to be bigger.  The Spokane Bar Monster Mine material seems to have more colors.  El Dorado has a bit more debris- such as twigs and roots – as the gravel is only four feet deep compared to Spokane Bar – of 30 feet.  Lots of people try both and compare.  You can view some comments about the differences under “Testimonials”.

I would recommend heat treating prior to faceting.  Once treated the cutter will be able to orient the color better.  If you wait until after the stone is cut – it can still clean out the silk but often the stone will need to be repolished – or recut and then loose some weight.