This 1.310 kg character grade nephrite chunk is rough BC jade. The jade we mine and sell comes from northern British Columbia, from in-place deposits and from boulders that glaciers moved. Jade mined from hard rock has a coarse surface, while stones worn by glaciers and rivers are smooth. This piece is medium green, with significant iron (black-dot) concentrations. It has no weathering rind, and it has a live edge and cut faces. It was graded by an experienced jade carver. See how we grade in our Nephrite Grading video.
British Columbia Nephrite Jade
BC jade is nephrite, one of the two true jades (the other is jadeite). Here's what that means at the bench.
Hardness vs toughness: Hardness is not toughness. Nephrite is only 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale, so quartz grit will scratch a polish. But its toughness, how well it resists breaking and chipping, is near the top of all natural stones, about twice that of jadeite. That's because it's a mat of interlocked microscopic fibres, so a crack has no clean path to follow. It holds thin edges and fine detail.
Colour: BC jade is green, from almost inky dark to pale. Lower-quality material can look yellowish-brown but is still green. The green comes mainly from iron, and more iron makes it darker. Some BC jade contains black specks of chromite and other spinel-group minerals, and can include bright-green uvarovite, a chromium garnet.
Quality: Structure, meaning how tightly the fibres are woven, matters more than colour. A pale stone with sound structure can outrank a vivid green one full of fractures. On rough, weathering, freeze-thaw action and oxide buildup hide the true jade inside, which is why rough is windowed and cut.
Where it comes from: BC jade mined today comes from northern BC: the Cassiar, Dease Lake, Kutcho and Polar areas.
Nephrite was the jade of ancient China, carved there since Neolithic times. In New Zealand, Māori have used it for centuries as pounamu.
Thousands of years on, carvers still pick nephrite for the same reason: it's tough enough to take whatever you throw at it.
Note: All our rough is filmed or photographed both wet and dry. The wet view gives an idea of how the jade may look polished.
