You purchase gravel ($20.00 per 50 lb. bag) containing sapphires from the owner and go through it with screens and water. When you are finished they grade your findings and let you know if you have good enough sapphires to be cut as gem quality. They will then heat treat the sapphires if you want and send them to China to be cut. This process takes from 6 to 9 months. 4 sapphires stones will cut between 0.3 and 0.4 carots cost me $133.00 to have heat treated and cut. (This picture will enlarge)