JADEITE - Canadian Institute of Gemmology

10) Hydrogrossular or Grossularite. This dense opaque greenish variety of grossular garnet
is sometimes called "Transvaal jade", "garnet jade", or "South African jade". Its refractive index is
1.734-1.759 (some sources give it as 1.74-1.75) and its specific gravity is 3.6-3.67. These
characteristics made it easy to tell from jadeite. It is also a little different in appearance.
11) Jasper. Jasper is a type of quartz that is sometimes categorized as part of the chalcedony
group and sometimes considered to be a separate group. The refractive index of the various types of
jasper is approximately 1.54. There are three varieties of jasper that are sometimes used as
substitutes for jadeite (in general various forms of jasper can be called "Jasper jade"): plasma (a
'dirty' green color, evenly fine-grained, from Oregon and sometimes called "Oregon jade"), prase
(leek-green; sometimes called "emerald quartz"; it is found in Germany, Finland, Australia, and
Scotland), and agate-jasper (jasper grown together with agate, dyed to look like jade, sometimes
called "Swiss jade"). Goette (1976: 120) mentions "jasper from Soochow [that] is pure white,
outwardly differing little from nephrite, but being too lusterless to be confused with jadeite." He
notes that it is usually made into such things as boxes, ash trays and chopsticks. A highly
translucent emerald green jasper found in Guatemala is called quetzalitztli. Hauff (1993: 86)
describes it as "quartzite + Cr-mica." The color is derived "from inclusions of small crystal of
chromium-muscovite" (Garza-Valdés 1993: 111). Worked pieces of its have been found in
archaeological sites.
12) Malachite. Malachite is light-green to black-green. It is sometimes called "Silver Peak
jadeite". While generally opaque, when thinly cut it can be translucent. It is relatively easy to
separate from other green stones when in large pieces because of its striped formation. Smaller
pieces, however, can be confused with other green stones. It is fairly soft (3.5-4). Its specific gravity
is 3.8 and its refractive index is 1.655-1.909. Read (1999: 282) notes that malachite shows a single
shadow edge at about 1.80 on the refractometer. It is found in Russia, Zaire, South Africa, Australia,
Chile, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and the United States (Arizona).
13) Maw-Sit-Sit. This is a medium to dark green and semi-translucent stone that comes from
northern Burma (it is sometimes spelled mawsitsit) and is sometimes treated as a cariety of jadeite.
It is relatively soft and brittle. It comes mainly from the Maw-sit-sit vein which is located some two
kilometers from Kansi at the northeastern end of the Jade Tract. Gübelin (1965a: 234) remarks that
Maw-sit-sit is a "small mining field" that "belongs to the so-called Namshamaw dike, which
constitutes part of the widespread outcrop mines in the jadeite-albite rocks of the vast jade region of
Tawmaw." The Maw-sit-sit mine is described by Hughes, Galibert, et al (2000: 14) as consisting
"of a narrow, vertical trench cut that is some 9 m deep. The total length of the active mining area in
November 1997 was approximately 200 m." Chhibber (1934: 79) referred to it as "hmaw sit sit".
Maw-sit-sit has been described in some detail by Gübelin (1965a, 1965b, 1965c). He describes
(1965a: 235) its general appearance as follows: "...an opaque stone of brilliant-green color of
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