Slocan Blu Starr

Gemstone and Sapphire

In 1991, prospector Rod Lucansky discovered the Blu Starr sapphire outcrop along the old CPR rail line near Passmore.  In 1995, Anglo Swiss purchased the Blu Starr property from the prospecting partners, and also acquired additional surrounding prospective ground.

During 1998, we discovered a new zone of sapphire, gem-grade garnet bearing pegmatite and gem grade iolite, which has a remarkable feature known as trichroism, meaning the colour changes when viewed from different directions, usually dark blue-violet, pale-blue, grey or yellow.

The Blu Starr Property is located in the Slocan Valley of southeast British Columbia, at the confluence of the Slocan and the Little Slocan rivers.  The deposit is easily accessed via major highways from the nearby towns of Nelson and Castlegar, and virtually all amenities are readily available in the area. 

To date, approximately 50,000 carats of rough sapphire have been hand-mined from the Blu Starr showing. The garnet showing has produced about 250,000 carats of rough to-date The iolite discover in late 1998 has yielded 2 tonnes of rock which contain approximately 50 kilograms of high-grade iolite crystal ore.  The samples are currently stored at the Kenville Mine site and are estimated to contain more than 100,000 rough carats of iolite crystal.