JADEITE - Canadian Institute of Gemmology

newsletter, however, does not say where these mines are located, but they appear to be within the
traditional mining region.
There is an interesting report of the discovery of a new jadeite dike in the Hpakan (Phakant)
area. The dike is reported to be very large: "At 70 feet by 20 feet by 16 feet for an estimated mass
of 2,000 tons, this dyke is a doozy" (Colored Stone, May/June, 2001, p. 120). The dike is in an area
controlled by the Pa-O ethnic group (a sub-group of Karen). The local Pa-O who hold the rights to
the dike are said to be charging admission to see it at present rather than mining it. A more recent
report on this discovery (Colored Stone, November/December 2001, p. 14) places the weight of the
"boulder" at 3,000 tons and quotes the deputy director of the government's Myanmar Gems
Enterprise as saying that the government has not yet decided what to do about the bolder, but that it
is likely the boulder will be cut up and all or part of it brought to Yangon for sale.
Mesoamerica. Researchers have long been interested in finding the sources of ancient
Mesoamerican jadeite. As late as 1964 Digby (1964: 14) commented that "no large deposits of jade
are known anywhere in the Maya area, though it is not improbable that such deposits were known
in the Highlands of Guatemala and mined in [Prehispanic] Maya times." He mentions that a large
jadeite stone weighing about 200 pounds was found in the archaeological site of Kaminaljuyu, from
which fragments had been detached to make jewelry (see Kidder, et al 1946). Given the
considerable variety in the nature of the jadeite that has been found around the Maya area and
elsewhere in Mesoamerica it was considered likely that there were a number of sources. Rough
jadeite was found in a couple of locations in the 1950s. Cook de Leonard (1971: 211-212) reviews
the two locales where small amounts of jadeite were discovered. The first was a site in Guatemala
near Manzanal, along the Motagua River in the departments of El Progresso and Zacapa, where
"fine jadeite of a lichen-green color" was found (see Foshag 1955, 1957; Foshag and Leslie 1955;
and Barbour 1957). The second location was a riverbed on the border of the Mexican states of
Puebla and Oaxaca where an olive green jadeite pebble was found.
Continued exploration since the 1950s has led to the discovery of additional sources of jadeite
in Mesoamerica. By far the most important site, however, remains the Motagua River Valley. A
search in Guatemala's Motagua River Valley in 1974 by archaeologist Louise Ridinger and her
husband Jay turned up not only various colors of jadeite, but also direct evidence of mining by the
ancient Maya (see www.jades.centroamerica.com; Ward 1996: 29). This area now seems to have
been the site where the ancient Olmec and others obtained most of their jadeite as well, although
there is the possibility that at least small quantities of jadeite were obtained from other localities.
Jadeite (along with albite) is found along the Motagua River Valley and the river's tributaries either
in blocks of serpentinite or in pebbles. Harlow (1994) associates the presence of jadeite at this site
with contact between the North American Plate and Caribbean Plate.
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