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Jade Mother Lode Found in Guatemala

Posted by michael on from the romancing-the-stone dept.

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."

17 comments

  1. Wow by castlan · · Score: 2, Funny

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

  2. can you say Gold^H^H^H^H Jade Rush? by kilroy_hau · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

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    1. Re:can you say Gold^H^H^H^H Jade Rush? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They'll have to fight their way through the swarms of hippies who hate humanity and all its works first.

    2. Re:can you say Gold^H^H^H^H Jade Rush? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hippies don't carry guns. Any looters are likely to be well-armed with the finest in chinese-made assault rifles. I don't think the hippies will prove to be a formidable obstacle.

    3. Re:can you say Gold^H^H^H^H Jade Rush? by Guppy · · Score: 1

      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.

  3. Downside by Picass0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Downside by ObviousGuy · · Score: 1

      Diamonds - DeBeers

      Jade - ZaSake?

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    2. Re:Downside by twjordan · · Score: 2
      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.

    3. Re:Downside by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Piss off, hippie.

      Let me know when you've removed all the ecologically offensive items from your house.

      Start with anything that came from a mine.

      Then anything that came from oil.

      Then anything that came from a tree.

    4. Re:Downside by mdwebster · · Score: 1

      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 ...

  4. pictures? by jungd · · Score: 1

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

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    1. Re:pictures? by geoswan · · Score: 3, Informative

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

  5. jade... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did anyone see the (awful) movie Jade? While I'm not sure the girl in it had boulders as big as a school bus, she sure was hot.

  6. Don't chip it all up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I get rich enough I want to get one of those boulders, cut it real thin and make windows out of the jade.

  7. Not the only mother lode of Jade by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  8. uses? by littlerubberfeet · · Score: 1

    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.

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    1. Re:uses? by Guppy · · Score: 2

      "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.