Fine Gems International, wholesalers of Montana sapphire in Helena, Mont., says its entire inventory of Montana sapphires has been heated—in either a reducing (lower oxygen) or oxidizing (higher oxygen) atmosphere—without the addition of beryllium, titanium, or magnesium. Bob Kane, Fine Gem's founder and president, writes, "The refusal to use chemicals in heat treatment has been a strict company policy since 1994 when American Gem Corporation first started to use heat treatment. Neither Fine Gems International nor American Gem Corporation, the company from which Fine Gems bought its Montana sapphire inventory, used or uses chemical additives for color enhancement." The heat treatment process of FGI's sapphire inventory was entrusted to Dr. John Emmett, the retired head of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., who in 1990 launched Crystal Research, a company that d