The JADE thread!

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#4,261
Junkenpo said:
So amazing. I guess you really do have to have an "eye" for jade, because without the polished areas, I would walk right past all those rocks. Jade in the rough!
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I don't know if there is a way to tell. Probably some correlation with where the boulder is sourced perhaps. I read that the raw Jade trade is a very big gamble, an unopened boulder on auction could be worth $1 or $1 million.
 
#4,262
I believe! Crazy guessing game.


I googled images of "raw jade trade" and this article came up, with nephrite boulders in canada next to a river. Since some of the rocks there are actually greenish, they'd get a second look from me, but the bits posted before aren't even things my DS would've picked up in his "I pick up all small rocks" phase.
 
#4,263
And the dirty side of the jade trade....

1. Bringing down mountains...

2. picture essay

3. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2014/11/myanmar-jade-curse-201411249233318531.html

Myanmar's Jade curse
China's jade obsession drives a multi-billion dollar black market that fuels a drug-infested jade mining industry.
101 East | 03 Dec 2014 16:44 GMT

Gold is valuable but jade is priceless, so goes a Chinese saying. For centuries, the Chinese consider jade an imperial stone with mystical properties. Today it is coveted all over China as a status symbol, a collectible and an investment.

Demand from increasingly wealthy Chinese drives the value of jade through the roof. At this year's Shanghai World Jewellery Expo, auctioneers put the opening bid for top grade jade items at more than $160 a gram, exceeding four times the price of gold.

Intricately designed pieces, made from top grade jade known as jadeite, are viewed as attractive investments despite the lack of scientific valuation methods. In recent years, jadeite has provided better returns than real estate.

But the imperial stone delivers a death sentence to treasure hunters in Myanmar, where China's jadeite comes from.

Most of Myanmar's raw jade enters a murky black market. Its official revenue from jade exports over from 2011 to 2014 was $1.3bn. But Harvard University's Ash Center estimates total jade sales - including through unofficial channels - were $8bn in 2011 alone, suggesting most of the revenue does not go into government coffers.

The Myanmar government will not speak to us on camera. But our investigations reveal a corrupt senior government official who works with businessmen in the illegal trade of raw jade, including helping to falsify tax documents.

In northern Kachin state, we follow jade smugglers to the remote Hpakant mining town, the source of the world's best jade. The men are part of the government's border guard force. The officer in charge tells us how he pays off army and police commanders along the smuggling trail to China.

Hpakant is out of bounds to foreigners and no foreign journalists have been known to make it there for years. Large mining companies suspended operations here in 2012 after the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar government went to war the preceding year, ending a 17-year ceasefire. With peace talks stalling, most companies have yet to resume excavation.

Despite the tension, tens of thousands of small time jade pickers have flooded Hpakant to sift through mine tailings, risking life and limb to toil in harsh conditions, hoping to strike jackpot. Some work alone, others in groups supported by businessmen. Their findings often go straight into the black market, forming the unregulated bedrock of the industry today.

A dark force fuels their labour. Jade picker Aik San estimates 75 percent of the miners have become drug addicts. They get their daily dose of heroin or yama - a type of methamphetamine - from drug dens around town. It numbs them from their backbreaking labour and helps them work longer hours in the harsh weather. With hidden cameras, we obtain shocking footage from the drug dens, revealing the scale of drug abuse that infests the underbelly of the jade trade. We also find a drug rehabilitation centre in Kachin state with more than 50 recovering addicts from the mining town. One of them, Aung Kyaw Moe, painfully shares how his employer paid him and fellow workers with heroin to get them hooked so they would work harder for their next dose.

As the hammer goes down in major Chinese cities for more glitzy jade items auctioned off at record levels, wealthy collectors celebrate yet another treasure possessed. It offers stark contrast to the wretched lives of mine pickers at the bottom of the supply chain, in a land far away.
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#4,264
Junkenpo said:
And the dirty side of the jade trade....

1. Bringing down mountains...

2. picture essay

3. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2014/11/myanmar-jade-curse-201411249233318531.html
Click to expand...


Thank you do much for sharing this information [emoji8]Afterward reading makes u think ever piece is been smuggled into that makes them like blood ruby and diamond are mined in the same. we by stones at human being life I don't know what else to say I love Jade but I hate to think of who or how many died to make it into what I have now[emoji20][emoji20]
 
#4,265
Got a couple of new items that are on the way. I know the bangle isn't all jadeite, it is similar to the one tea recently got from antijade, but it was super cheap and I think it looks cool.
 

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#4,267
Junkenpo said:
And the dirty side of the jade trade....

1. Bringing down mountains...

2. picture essay

3. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2014/11/myanmar-jade-curse-201411249233318531.html
Click to expand...

Yes, this is true. On etsy the sellers are not allowed to use the word "Burmese" to describe jadeite because they are against the slavery happening in Myanmar for the mining of these stones. However, what sellers do is just remove the word "Burmese" from the description and instead use just "jade" or "jadeite."
 
#4,268
piosavsfan said:
Got a couple of new items that are on the way. I know the bangle isn't all jadeite, it is similar to the one tea recently got from antijade, but it was super cheap and I think it looks cool.
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She's lovely and carved so nicely. I know you'll like her as she'll feel nice a light but still a good weight. I wear mine non stop and get lots of compliments. Can't wait to see her on you!
 
#4,269
crosso said:
Tea and JKP!! Look what I found from SC - bats! I had been wanting a multicolored necklace, but the ones I've seen lately were too steep (except one from Alohamemorabilia that got away - hope a jade sister nabbed it!) and I have several bead necklaces already. I love the whimsical look of this one and since I've bought so much from Suzanne, she gives me great deals, so could not resist such cute little batties 😊 Listing and Suzanne said grade a, but as usual pics are not so good.
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BATS!!! I love them!! So happy you found those Crosso and SC is so nice to give you good prices. Beautiful!!
 
#4,270
piosavsfan said:
Got a couple of new items that are on the way. I know the bangle isn't all jadeite, it is similar to the one tea recently got from antijade, but it was super cheap and I think it looks cool.
Click to expand...

That's great Piosavsfan! I love the pendant - lavender on one side and minty green on the other. It's very cute and I can see that it would be very versatile. The carved bangle is cool too. Hope it fits nicely - can't wait to see your pictures when they arrive:)
 
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