Sapphire gemstone? All you need to know about Sappire.

• Although blue is the best-known sapphire color, they occur in other colors, including gray and black, and they can be colorless. A pinkish orange variety of sapphire is called padparadscha.

Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide, when it is a color other than a shade of red, in which case the gem would instead be called a ruby, considered to be a different gemstone.

Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give corundum blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange, or greenish color.

For example, chromium is the distinct impurity that creates the red color of rubies. However, a combination of impurities, such as chromium and titanium, can give a sapphire a color distinct from red.

Sapphires can be found naturally, by searching through certain sediments (due to their resistance to being eroded compared to softer stones), or rock formations, or they can be manufactured for industrial or decorative purposes in large crystal boules.

• Sapphires are commonly worn in jewelry.

• Because of the remarkable hardness of sapphires (and of aluminum oxide in general), sapphires are used in some non-ornamental applications, including infrared optical components, such as in scientific instruments.

• High-durability windows (also used in scientific instruments).

• Wristwatch crystals and movement bearings.

• Some other use cases include, very thin electronic wafers, which are used as the insulating substrates of very special-purpose solid-state electronics (most of which are integrated circuits).

Significant sapphire deposits are found in Australia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, China (Shandong), Colombia, Ethiopia, India (Kashmir), Kenya, Laos, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United States (Montana) and Vietnam.

As of the quantity and quality of sapphire, India's Kashmir ranks at the top, although Burma, Sri Lanka, and Madagascar also produce large quantities of fine quality gems.