JADE
Today, gemmologists apply the term jade only to nephrite and jadeite. 1 Of the two, jadeite is rarer,
documented in fewer than 12 places worldwide. Burma (Myanmar) and Guatemala are the principal
sources of modern gem jadeite. While nephrite jade is mined in China, demand for jadeite jade from
Burma is higher and it accordingly dominates the market.2 Jade is difficult and expensive to mine.
How jade is mined:
Mining Techniques in developing countries such as Burma:
Dike Mining. Unlike secondary deposits, where the miner has to determine which of the myriad
boulders is jadeite, the dikes contain readily recognizable material. Historically, miners started a fire
near the dike and then threw water on the rock to crack it. Today, at Tawmaw, often miners first
must use backhoes, scrapers, and other earth-moving equipment to expose the jadeite dikes, or
rudimentary digging to create shafts to reach them. Shafts observed at a 1997 visit reached depths
of approximately 10–20 m. Once a dike is exposed, miners use dynamite and jackhammers to break
the jadeite apart and away from the country rock. 3
Boulder and Gravel Mining. The workings at Sate Mu and Maw-sisa are, in many respects, typical
of secondary jadeite mines. The Uru Boulder Conglomerate is as much as 300 m deep in places, and
alluvial mining has barely scratched the surface. From the open cuts there is a huge quantity of
material remaining to be extracted. Workers can be seen working about 18 m down into the
conglomerate, stripping it away with primitive tools.4
At Hpakangyi, more than 10,000 workers excavated an area that had reached hundreds of meters
deep. Waste was piled into a waiting truck, and then emptied directly into the river that bisects
Hpakan. At the dump, jade pickers scrambled over the riverbank to search for jade overlooked at the
source. Along the banks of the Uru River, large mounds of boulders attest to two centuries of
mining. When the water level is high, the river is worked by divers breathing via crude air pumps.5
In western countries such as British Columbia (BC) :
The process of removing the massive jade boulders — some weighing as much as 40 tonnes — and
shipping them back to the settlement is accomplished with the use of enormous trucks and
expensive diamond saws.
Today, most of those boulders have been tested and jade is now mined from enormous deposits, in a
process very similar to removing rock from a quarry. First, miners expose seams of jade and use
diamond-tipped core drills to pull out samples, ensuring that they meet the gem-grade requirements.
Then, choosing only the best areas to focus on, the process begins.
Hydraulic spreaders are inserted into cleavage points in the rock face and the jade is broken away
— a difficult process. , because jade is the world's toughest stone. jade is made of tightly woven
fibres, similar to a fistful of human hair, which gives it its legendary strength. Once the boulders are
broken away, they're taken to diesel-operated, water-cooled diamond saws that chew into the
boulder, splitting the jade into more manageable 10-tonne chunks.6
Jade in Burma:
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http://www.cigem.ca/426.html
http://www.kdng.org/mining/jade.html
http://www.palagems.com/burma_jade.htm
http://www.palagems.com/burma_jade.htm
http://www.palagems.com/burma_jade.htm
http://www.jademine.com/jade_mining.html
Jade West is governed by environmental bonding requirements to ensure they reduce disturbances
and return the land to its original state: any trails they create must be re-formed and any pits must be
refilled. This is one of the higher costs in jade mining. 7
Jade West is the world's largest producer and exporter of nephrite Jade, operating three mines
located in Northern British Columbia, 100 miles east of the Alaskan Border. During a short summer
mining season, when the area is free from snow, Jade West annually mines 100 tons of jade for
export to China. 8
The extraction of jade increased massively after the 1994 ceasefire between the Kachin
Independence Army and Burma’s ruling military.9
Mining concessions in the Hpakan area are granted according to the projected value of the jade in
the ground. Of course, the best spots cost lots of money, which the (mostly) Chinese mine owners
pay to the central government. According to this source, only those with mighty deep pockets get
involved and, in these hills, that usually means opium merchants.10
Miners earn less than US$1 per day. They work in life-threatening conditions without protection;
accidents and fatalities occur without record or compensation. Drug abuse (including injection drug
use) is notorious in jade mining areas. Heroin, raw opium, methamphetamines and various mixtures
of drugs are widely available. Mining company bosses and local authorities are complicit in a
thriving local trade in drugs.11
It should be noted, too, that the area has a very high incidence of AIDS. 12 Improper mining
practices lead to erosion, frequent landslides, floods, pollution, and other environmental damage.
The main river flowing through Hpakant, the Uru River, has changed its course and is now a
flowing mess of mine tailings. 13 When the water level is high, the river is worked by divers
breathing via crude air pumps.14 Deadly floods and landslides have increased in Hpakan due to the
Jade Mines. Today Burma’s military regime has effectively consolidated its control over the entire
gems industry, including jade mining, by eliminating small and independent companies. Water
pollution has led to an increase in diseases and birth defects and governmental health support is
almost non-existent. Every year hundreds of people die from diarrhea after drinking bad water in
Hpakant, especially women and children.15
YOUTUBE CLIPS
Myanmars deadly ruby trade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkaQX_OO_3c&feature=related
Jade in British Columbia:
Nephrite is the jade that B.C. has in abundance. Its chemical structure is completely different from
jadeite, found primarily in Myanmar (Burma). Jadeite is beautiful, and rare, and even though it’s a
relative newcomer in the Asian jade trade (the 1700s) it became China’s pre-eminent gemstone over
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http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/ja05/indepth/resources.asp
http://www.jademine.com/jade_mining.html
http://www.kdng.org/mining/jade.html
http://www.cigem.ca/426.html
http://www.kdng.org/mining/jade.html
http://www.palagems.com/burma_jade.htm
http://www.kdng.org/mining/jade.html
http://www.palagems.com/burma_jade.htm
http://www.kdng.org/mining/jade.html
the past two centuries, and that’s at the root of the confusion between the two stones.16
Myanmar jadeite is a $500-million-a-year business – 50 times bigger than the Canadian nephrite
industry17
Jade West is the world's largest producer and exporter of nephrite Jade, operating three mines
located in Northern British Columbia, 100 miles east of the Alaskan Border. During a short summer
mining season, when the area is free from snow, Jade West annually mines 100 tons of jade for
export to China. 18
British Columbia has stricter regulations on mining, in particular with their mine reclamation –
which is legally required when any mining operation is carried out in BC on agricultural land.19
Often jade mines and other mining operations are subject to intensive reclamation which work to
restores any flora and fauna in the area to pre-mine conditions. Please see youtube clip below for
images.
As a testament and encouragment of their efforts, over thirty five years ago, the British Columbia
TRCR established a Reclamation Award to recognize outstanding achievement in mine reclamation
in British Columbia.20
YOUTUBE CLIPS
Jade mining in British Columbia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3GsT_3NpXQ
According to the web site: http://www.gemstone.org; the following are the top 7 exporters of jade:
 China
 Myanmar
 Guatemala
 Canada
 Australia
 U.S.A.
 Taiwan
for basic info, etymology and history on Jade, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade
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http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/top-stories/2009/07/02/green-giants-jade-bc
http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/top-stories/2009/07/02/green-giants-jade-bc
http://www.jademine.com/jade_mining.html
http://www.trcr.bc.ca/mining-in-bc/
http://www.trcr.bc.ca/report-35th-annual-mine-reclamation-awards/