We recently took this photo to help educate people about WHY sapphires are heated. The pale hazy stones on the left are unheated; the right is another batch of the exact same material after heat treatment. These are from the Rock Creek deposit outside of Philipsburg, which responds much better to heating than any of the other Montana deposits. Note the huge improvement in both clarity and color. These are vastly more valuable after heating than before--contrary to the common misconception that somehow unheated sapphires are "more valuable." They are *only* more valuable if they have same clarity and color as the heated stone--but alas, about 95% of all sapphires mined will need to be heated to develop the best clarity and color.