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All gem-quality corundum that is not red is called Sapphire, yet this name is popuraly associated with the color blue. Variation in colour, due to iron and titanium impurities, spans many shades, but the most valueable is a clear, deep blue. Sapphire is transparent to translucent, with a vitreeous or adamantine lustre. Blue Sapphire is the birth stone of September.
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The good quality sapphire usually come from Burma, India (Kashmir), Sri Lanka, and Madagascar. The best Indian sapphire is cornflower blue, and found in Kashmir, either in pegmatites or as waterworn pebbles in alluvial deposites. Sapphire from Thailand, Australia, and Nigeria is dark blue, and may appear nearly black. Montana (USA) produces sapphire of an attractive metallic blue. Other localities include Cambodia, Brazil, Kenya, Malawi, and Colombia.
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