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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."

7 of 17 comments (clear)

  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.

    --


    Kilroy was here!
  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 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.

  4. 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.

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

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

  6. 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.