Coloured by Jade

The wonders of the Routeburn include these emerald pools, colored by the nephrite jade that was so prized by the indigenous Maoris that they built the route centuries ago.
Photo © Peter Potterfield

Not a half day into the Routeburn Track, at a place called Key Summit, the peaks of Mount Aspiring National Park surround an open meadow set high on a rare “triple” continental divide. Here, three epic valleys—the Hollyford, the Eglington, and the Greenstone—drain into the Tasman Sea, the Foveaux Strait on the Southern Ocean, and the South Pacific Ocean. The landscape is astonishing, spiced with views into the Darran Range, where Hillary trained for Everest."

Jades Many Faces

Look into the face of Jade and each view will present new vision. The official gemstone of BC, Jade is held in high regard throughout the world; both for its practical qualities as well as its mystical and spiritual essence. Beautiful shades of emerald green are the most recognized face of Jade, but this magnificent creation of nature also comes in hues of white, gray, yellow, orange and violet. Viewing the kaleidoscopic mountains of the Lillooet region, one’s imagination goes wild with thoughts of elusive lodes of this bewitching stone.The B.C. mountain ranges are encompassed by the Cordilleran Mountain Region which runs from the Yukon to Mexico. The creation of these ranges began millions of years ago with massive rock movements and collisions. These forces of nature, pressure and heat co-acted to create a hard nephrite jade belt, which runs through B.C., and includes rich deposits in the Lillooet area.

Read more or book your Adventures in Gold Country at exploregoldcountry.com, an awesome outing for any Jade enthusiast!

A Few Favorite Jade Pics

Identifying Fake Jades

B. C. Jade
"B. C. Jade" refers to a nephrite jade found in British Columbia, Canada. The color moss-like medium green color.

American Jade
"American jade" is actually californite and not jade. Californite is a type of green vesuvianite that is also sometimes called green idocrase.

Malaysian Jade
"Malaysian jade" is actually quartzite that has been dyed green or other colors.

Oregon Jade or Oregon Jade Jasper
"Oregon Jade" is used to refer to dark green jasper or green garnet found in Oregon and California.

Russian Jade
"Russian Jade" is usually serpentine, not jade.

Siberian Jade
"Siberian Jade" is occasionally described as nephrite, but in many places it appears with "Russian Jade" and described as serpentine, not jade.
"Siberian blue nephrite (also called dianite) - a massive blue (diverse hues) quartz, tremolite, magnesio-arfvedsonite rock, the texture of which resembles nephrite jade from an unspecified location, in Siberia. Dianite - name used, especially in Russia, for the material listed here as Siberian blue nephrite."

These are just a few examples for more information on how to identify fake Jades visit:

Identifying Fake Jades
Description & eBay Examples
By Molly Kalafut

Jade in B.C.

What is Jade?

Jade is a commercial term encompassing green, white, black or yellow-brown jadeite and nephrite. Jadeitite is a rock that consists essentially of jadeite (sodium-rich, high-pressure pyroxene), whereas nephrite consists of prismatic to acicular amphiboles of the tremolite-actinolite series forming bundles that are randomly oriented and interlocked. All of the known jade deposits in B.C. are of the nephrite variety.
Jade has been used since Neolithic times for jewelry and tool making. Today, the best material is used as gemstones. Large quantities are used for carving and ornamental stone or for table tops. Industrial grade material is used for tile making.

Geology and Origin
Nephrite occurs at over fifty sites in B.C. in bedrock, boulder fields and talus. The bedrock occurrences are typically lens shaped and occur at or near contacts of mafic-ultramafic rocks (mainly serpentinite) with metasedimentary or igneous felsic rocks.
Nephrite formed by metasomatic exchange between ultramafic and silica-bearing rocks within the Mississippian to Jurassic age oceanic Cache Creek and Slide Mountain terranes of B.C.
High pressure blueschist or eclogite grade metamorphic rocks, favourable for jadeitite exploration, are found in the Bridge River, Pinchi Lake, Dease Lake and Jennings River areas of B.C.

Known jade mineral occurrences are documented in the B.C. Geological Survey's MINFILE database which is available on the Ministry's website at www.em.gov.bc.ca/mining/geolsurv/minfile
Click to view the Jade in B.C. Map

Our New e-Store

We are very proud to announce our new e-store gojade.ca. All though our store is still in it's infancy our hope is to become a major supplier of superb quality Canadian Nephrite Jade to everyone everywhere.


We also offer custom orders of our Jade as well as yours!

Jade is one of the hardest stones to cut or carve and at our facility near Surrey British Columbia, we are equipped to handle all your custom Jade requests.....whatever you can imagine we can create or have created for you.


Our affiliation with one of B.C's largest suppliers of Canadian Nephrite Jade gives us a leading advantage to serve you better, locally and overseas.

Jade Slabs

Magnetite Jade Slabs
Magnetite Jade has magnetite crystals in the dark to black jade base. This makes magnetite jade a beautiful and unusual stone. Once a cabochon is cut from this material, the magnetite portion can be gold plated, which makes for an outstanding gem.
Jade has been revered for thousands of years in both the Orient and the New World. Although jade has a reputation of being hard to polish, it polishes well with diamond and takes a high polish with chrome oxide. We've found that 14,000 grit Superpolish polishes jade in a snap. We sell this fantastic diamond compound on the polishes page of our Cabbingmachines.com website.

Purple Nephrite Jade Slabs
Purple is a rare color for jade. This nephrite material is from Turkey. It cuts and polishes like agate. Polishes best with diamond or chrome oxide.

Black Nephrite Jade Slabs
Black Nephrite Jade is uniformly colored. When viewed in very bright light a slight greenish undertone can sometimes be detected. This material makes good black jade stones.