Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 10, 1995                   TAG: 9507100126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

LIKE A ROCK: A SAPPHIRE, THAT IS

Ten-year-old Lawrence Shields picked through a bucket of dirt at a commercial gem mine and found an interesting rock.

``I just liked the shape of it,'' he said.

It turned out to be a 1,061-carat sapphire, one of the state's biggest.

Experts said it is worth thousands, but its exact value won't be determined until it's cut and polished. Lawrence and his parents say they've been told it could be worth more than $35,000.

On Wednesday, Lawrence and his family, from Alexandria, Va., were at the Gold City Gem Mine near Franklin in southwestern North Carolina.

Lawrence worked through a $10 bucket of soil - about 16 pounds, said manager Sandy Hanson - and found a large bluish-black stone.

Then people around him started getting excited and taking pictures.

``I thought it was because he was a little kid,'' said the boy's mother, Maria Shields. ``We thought, `These people in the mountains are really nice.'''

The state's largest sapphires, the Star of the Carolinas, weighing 1,445 carats, and the Southern Cross, a 1,075-carat stone, both were found in the Canton area near Asheville, about 60 miles north of Franklin, said Jeff Reid, a state geologist.

Lawrence's father, Larry Shields, said he hopes the stone will help pay for his son's college education.

Lawrence has other plans.

``I've decided to buy a fishing boat,'' he said. ``The name is going to be `Sapphire.'''