Jade Mother Lode Found in Guatemala

BrodyVess writes "Scientists searching in Guatemala have found the mother lode of jade that was used by Mayan and Olmec civilizations. They had been searching for 50+ years to try and find the source for ancient artifacts from the civilizations, and have found a mining site as large as the current burma mines, and was apparently used for over a thousand years. My favorite part- boulders of jade as big as a school bus."

Wow

[castlan]

Those lucky storm survivors...
I guess you could say I'm green with envy!

can you say Gold^H^H^H^H Jade Rush?

[kilroy_hau]

So now Guatemala will have a lot of "explorers" trying to exploit this mother lode, thinking about jewels the size of buses and geting rich quick, as it happened in the old west of the U.S.A.

And destroying the archeological treasures in their path.

Re:can you say Gold^H^H^H^H Jade Rush?

[Guppy]

Still, the article mentions that scientists only discovered the lode after stones started turning up in stores.

I suppose if the discovery hadn't been announced, the site would simply have continued to be mined with nobody but the locals any wiser. Eventually, the amount of jade hitting the market would have attracted somebody's attention.

Downside

[Picass0]

Of couse that much jade devalues the world market price of jade, and hence a find of that size is conterproductive.

Or they can build a consortium (like diamond sellers) to control the flow of jade and keep the price artificially high.

Re:Downside

[ObviousGuy]

Diamonds - DeBeers

Jade - ZaSake?

Re:Downside

[twjordan]

Unless maybe by some miracle the land doesn't get bought up by american or european corporate interest and strip mined.

Maybe we'll have a nice site here that can be preserved for our children.

Ok, sorry i'm off the drugs now... pity about the drop in jade prices.

Re:Downside

[mdwebster]

Counterproductive to whom? People who sell jade or those who like to own jade pieces? It's not like making money is some holy grail or something ...

pictures?

[jungd]

anyone? (of school-bus sized 'bits' of jade)

Re:pictures?

[geoswan]

Here is an article [jadesource.com] with pictures, about Guatemalen Jade. No pictures of the bus sized nuggets though.

Not the only mother lode of Jade

[Anonymous Coward]

Somewhere in South Australia there is a small time mine site that mines Jade with a front end loader (about two days a year). The demand for Jade is fairly limited and you don't want to flood the market resulting in a price crash.

National Geographic had a reference to the place in an issue several years back when they did a feature article on Jade.

uses?

[littlerubberfeet]

Does Jade have any industrial/commercial uses? Or is it purely a jewler's material? As for making windows out of jade, school bus sized chunks won't have the tensle strength if sliced thin, and there will be a huge amount of viens and impurities. Otherwise +1 funny.

Re:uses?

[Guppy]

"Does Jade have any industrial/commercial uses?"

Actually, yes. Because of its excellent hardness and durability, Jade makes excellent stone tools -- axe heads, spearpoints, etc. A number of these types of artifacts have been found at Chinese archaeological sites, where they were made up until Jade became more valuable for jewelry and ritual uses.

A find of this size could quite possibly destabilize the balance of power in Neolithic society. I hope Caveman Ogg realizes the military implications of allowing a Jade gap to develop.