Sapphires can be found here in Montana. About a 8-9 hour drive from Salt Lake City. Pay sites, only two of them really, vary, but at Gem Mountain you can buy a bag of gravel to search through for $20 bucks all the way up to $200, depending on the "concentrate" you want to try and go through. at the Spokane Bar pay site, you can pay $10 per 5 gal bucket in the upper pit, or buy $30-$99 dollar bags of gravel from the main lower pit. Or you can pay $300 to dig in the lower pit getting 5, 5 gallon buckets of gravel, and $35 for extra buckets. Or they have mine runs where they use a backhoe and dig up so many yards to run through their trommel, prices vary from $600-$1200 all the way up to $3000 for that. There are websites you can go to in order to buy gravel from these places in the mail as well. These are the prices I saw last time I was at these mines, however, they can and do change, so beware. Some REALLY nice sapphires can be found at both these mines, but don't go there expecting to get rich......One of these days I'm gonna make it down to Topaz mountain in Utah, and get some of your topaz lol! OH, and here is some of the sapphires I have found here in Montana......
View attachment 1647796 Being from Utah, I suggest grabbing the "Rockhounding in Utah" book. Make sure you get an up to date one as some older sites are no longer accessible. Montana ALSO has a "Rockhounding Montana" book I suggest you grab if you come up here. Both excellent books IMHO.