Yogo Sapphires Online

Contact Us
406-859-6725
rockdiggers@gmail.com
www.montanagems.net
Welcome to Montana Gems!
Montana Gems of Philipsburg is your source for fine Montana Sapphires
including the premier Yogo sapphire, Idaho Garnets & Idaho Opals!
We do our best to bring you beautiful Montana Sapphires, Montana garnets,
Montana Agates as well as Idaho Opals, Idaho Garnets and a few other local
gems and minerals. Our family found we had a love of rocks, gems and mining
and chose to turn that love into a business where we could share that
experience with others.
At Montana Gems, you can mine sapphires using our outdoor running water
flume. We offer a variety of Montana sapphire gravels to mine on site or to
purchase for an “at-home mining” experience. Our Montana sapphire gravels
include Yogo dike ore, unwashed El Dorado sapphire mine gravel and Rock
Creek sapphire gravel from Melee Gulch – another private claim in the
Sapphire Mountains of Philipsburg. We create many styles of Montana
sapphire jewelry set in sterling silver and 14K gold. We also incorporate our
local gems into earrings, rings, pendants and bracelets. Mine your Montana
Sapphire here at Montana Gems of Philipsburg and let us help you create a
lasting memory in a piece of jewelry that fits your style and budget.
If you're looking for something unique, we offer custom settings for that one-ofa-kind
eye-catching piece. We also offer a large variety of settings that will
accommodate your Montana sapphire or other gem, with prices starting at
$49. If you’re not looking to mine your Montana gem, check out our selection
of loose Montana Sapphires, Idaho and Montana Garnets or Idaho Opals. If
you don’t find what you’re looking for, our cutters can generally finish a gem to
your specifications.
Our retail store located in Philipsburg, Montana also offers Geodes and
thunder-eggs cut while you watch that are always a fun surprise! We carry
Yogo ore gift bags, mineral specimens, crystals, souvenirs, a large knife
selection and more. Choose Montana Gems of Philipsburg for a great
experience that will last a lifetime.

About Us
IDAHO OPALS & MONTANA SAPPHIRES!
Welcome to the Montana Gems website
(Formerly Opal Mountain Gems). From a
hobby interest, we've built a family business
around the enjoyment we get from finding
gems as a family. Located in Philipsburg,
near the Gem Mountain sapphire deposit, we
are fortunate to have access to such things
like sapphire, moss agate, garnet, opal,
sunstone and many others. Because we all found such enjoyment with this, we
chose to start a family business where we could work together and bring these
treasures to you. We know many other people have similar interests and hope
this website will allow us to share our finds with those that appreciate a
beautiful rock as much as we do.
Many of the Montana sapphires we offer will
be natural, untreated gemstones. We find
great beauty in the natural colors of the
Montana Sapphire with a brilliance of a well
cut diamond. Many sapphires will benefit
from the heat treating process to help in
clarity and color and will result in a very
fine specimen as well. Both the natural and
treated Montana sapphire comes in every
color of the rainbow, yellow, pink, white, gold, green, parti-color (multi-colored)
and of course, blue-every shade! Most often the natural stones will have a more
delicate shade than their heat treated counter-parts. Heat treating may also
cause some brittleness in the stone but in general, a sapphire is a very durable
gem and should bring you years of enjoyment. Only you will know which stone
truly appeals to you in color and brilliance and with Montana sapphires, there
are a lot of choices.
Please be assured that all of our stones will be clearly marked if there has been
any treatment or enhancement done to them. We take pride in creating jewelry
with gems that were made in USA!

At Home Mining Info
MONTANA SAPPHIRE GRAVEL
Bringing you unwashed sapphire gravel from 3 Montana Sapphire deposits!
The sapphire material we offer is still in the virgin state and is brought in from
private claims on the El Dorado Bar of the Missouri River, Helena Area, from
Melee Gulch in the Sapphire Mountains of Philipsburg and we also carry Yogo
Dike material from the Roberts mine near Judith Basin, Utica, Montana.
The sapphires found in the El
Dorado Bar of the Missouri River
range from 1 to 12 carats, with the
largest to date being 34.7carats!
Sapphires from this deposit tend to
run larger than Rock Creek gems
but are tough to spot due to their
rough shape and muted colors
amongst the river gravel. El Dorado
sapphires come in a wide range of
colors, with several color-shift
stones being produced. You may
find an occasional ruby, garnet, and/or hematite specimen. Often the hematite
has replaced various seeds, nuts even clam shells and give you a fossilized
impression that's quite interesting and fun to add to your collection. This
material may also contain small flakes of gold, fossils or petrified wood.
Virgin Rock Creek sapphire material from the Mountains of Philipsburg
provides another flavor or sapphire mining. This deposit is rich in clay, making
it a little tougher to wash clean but the sapphires have a more polished look
due to weathering, making them easier to spot. They come in every color of the
rainbow but tend to be light blues and greens, resembling sea-glass or old coke
bottles.
Bags of sapphire gravel are available in our store to screen on premise in our
outside screening area. If you can't make it here, gravel shipping usually costs
about $10 per box using USPS Priority flat rate boxes.