Blu Starr Gemstone Project - Summary

Iolite was first discovered on the property at the end of the 1998 season. Iolite is blue-violet gem variety of the metamorphic mineral known as cordierite, a magnesium aluminum silicate. It has a hardness of 7.5 making it a durable gemstone. One of the remarkable properties of iolite is trichroism, wherein the stone changes colour from blue-violet to straw yellow to gray or clear when viewed from different directions.

Two gem quality iolite-bearing zones have been tested on this property. The two zones outcrop approximately one kilometer apart on a correlative litho-statigraphic horizon. Access to the zones is excellent. Float occurrences of similar material have been traced for an additional kilometer along strike.

The initial iolite discovery, known as the Rainbow North Zone , outcrops at the base of a small bluff. The mineralized zone has been hand trenched and is exposed for 20 metres along strike, 5 metres in thickness, and 5 metres in profile depth. Iolite content varies, averaging about 5% of the observed rock surface, which is highly altered due to weathering.

The iolite occurs as large crystals in quartz vein stockworks and pegmatites, and as scattered masses throughout the host-rock. The iolite crystals weather to irregular masses of translucent violet gem material on the outcrop surface. The deepest samples obtained from the outcrop show euhedral dark violet crystals with minimal alterations. The largest single crystals exceed 1,000 rough carats in weight, but much larger crystalline masses have resulted from complex twinning and intergrowths. A representative 2-metre by 2-metre panel sample averaging about 10 centimetres in depth was taken by hammer and moil from the south end of the mineralized zone. The total sample weight was approximately one tonne, from which approximately 50,000 rough carats of high-grade iolite was extracted.