Sapphire
COLOR RANGE
Intense violet-blue to blue-green/ fancy sapphire colors are: pink, orange, yellow, green, purple, and violet.
HARDNESS & TOUGHNESS
Hardness : 9 Toughness :Excellent
MAJOR SOURCES
Australia, Cambodia, Kashmir, Madagascar, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, USA, Vietnam
Blue Sapphire belongs to the mineral species corundum. It can be a pure blue but ranges from greenish blue to Violetish blue. The name “sapphire” can also apply to any corundum that’s not red and doesn’t qualify as ruby, another corundum variety. Besides blue sapphire and ruby, the corundum family also includes so-called “fancy sapphires.” They come in violet, green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and intermediate hues. There are also “parti-colored” sapphires that show combinations of different colors. Some stones exhibit the phenomenon known as color change,most often going from blue in daylight or fluorescent lighting to purple under incandescent light. Sapphires can even be gray, black, or brown.
The mineral corundum is composed only of aluminum and oxygen, and it requires a growth environment that’s free of silicon. However, silicon is a very common element, making natural corundum relatively uncommon. In its purest state, corundum is actually colorless. But colorless corundum is rare. Most corundum contains color-causing trace elements. When the trace elements are iron and titanium, the corundum is blue sapphire. Only a few hundredths of a percent of iron and titanium can cause the color, and the more iron the corundum contains, the darker the blue.
