Blue sapphires

At Metal Urges we love working with natural and untreated blue sapphire, in fact it’s our specialty. Our blue sapphire colour range is extensive, filled with vivid and saturated hues. This rare and valuable gem is perfect for engagement, eternity or wedding rings, necklace pendants or earrings.

Blue sapphires belong to the corundum aluminum oxide mineral group. Pure corundum is colourless, although majority of corundum contains other chemicals called trace elements. These elements are responsible for the range of different colours sapphires come in, sapphires become blue sapphire thanks to a combination of iron and titanium trace elements.

Natural blue sapphire and untreated blue sapphire are becoming a very rare commodity currently due to high demand and complex issues is source countries. If sapphire deposits are situated in areas that are too inaccessible, isolated, politically unstable, or environmentally extreme they will not be mined. The main mining areas for blue sapphire currently are Sri Lanka, Cambodia, India, Madagascar, Tanzania, Australia, Thailand, the US and of course Tasmania. Blue sapphires and sapphires of most varieties can often be tested and traced back to country of origin. This is called origin determination and Metal Urges is a big supporter of this in relation to blue sapphire.

Chris Hood our head designer and Metal Urges founder personally sources and selects every blue sapphire we work with. This means Chris travels far and wide to ethically source these beautiful blue sapphires from their source countries. Metal Urges’s mission whilst sourcing blue sapphire is to leave the mining community and those surrounding it in a better state than we found it.  To achieve this we often pay over the local price for our blue sapphire to support the mining contacts we have and to ensure we get access to the very highest quality blue sapphire being produced. We are super proud of our financial and other contributions to the many local economies our business helps support.

Some say the blue sapphire symbolises truth, sincerity, faithfulness, and nobility and has come to represent romance and royalty. Blue sapphires have had many different purposes and meanings throughout the ages, from the Ancient Greeks believing they protected the wearer from harm to clergymen wearing them to represent Heaven. Through history, art, and consumer awareness, sapphire has come to be mostly associated with the colour blue.