Are Yogo Sapphires valuable?
Yogo Sapphires are the most precious sapphires found in North America. They are considered to be among the finest sapphires in the world. These unique gems come from only limited area, named Yogo Gulch, located in the Little Belt Mountains of Montana.
How can you tell a Yogo sapphire?
While the color of Yogo Sapphires is always a vivid blue, Montana sapphires are found with different colors including green and yellow. While there are productive sapphire mines in other parts of Montana, they rarely produce blue sapphires that have the striking color and clarity of those found in the Yogo Gulch.
Where is Yogo Gulch Montana?
Judith Basin County
Yogo sapphires are a variety of corundum found only in Yogo Gulch, part of the Little Belt Mountains in Judith Basin County, Montana, United States, on land once inhabited by the Piegan Blackfeet people. Yogos are typically cornflower blue, a result of trace amounts of iron and titanium.
Is a Montana sapphire the same as a Yogo Sapphire?
A Montana sapphire is, simply, a sapphire from Montana. Yogo sapphires are also Montana sapphires, but originate from a particular deposit known for its excellent cornflower blue color. Both sapphires and rubies are gem-quality corundum. Rubies are the red variety, while all other colors are sapphires.
Why are they called Yogo sapphires?
The term “Yogo sapphire” refers only to sapphires from the Yogo Gulch. The cornflower blue color of the Yogo results from trace amounts of iron and titanium.
Can you mine at Yogo Gulch?
Sapphire mining at yogo gulch The yogo dike was a unique mining area compared to other sapphire sources in the world. Unlike foreign sapphire deposits, all production records were known. Intergem had mined only around 700,000 carats in the first 5 years.
Why are Montana sapphires so expensive?
Due to the limited resources for the Montana sapphires, a majority of the natural Montana sapphires will be under 1ct. To be specific, the majority is under 1/2ct and a very limited supply of the sapphires are over 1ct, which makes the stone substantially more expensive per carat.
Are Yogo sapphires more expensive than diamonds?
Brilliant, beautiful and highly prized, the Yogo sapphire is the most precious gemstone mined in the United States and is an official gemstone of Montana. Breathtaking to behold, the Yogo sapphire is found only in Montana.
Are all Montana sapphires Yogo?
Yogo Sapphires are the only sapphires in Montana still being mined from the primary deposit. Yogo sapphire are typically cornflower blue, a result of small amounts of iron and titanium. They have high uniform clarity and maintain their brilliance under artificial light.