Nephrite

specimen number:
2262303

location:
Yunnan, China

description:
A good example of what is called jadeite, a section cut and polished to show the color. The specimen comes with a previous collection data card giving an acquisition date in 1958.

The Yunnan mineral region in southwestern China has historically served as the premier processing, trading, and quarrying hub for jadeite imported from nearby Myanmar, while also exploiting localized indigenous deposits of nephrite jade. Geologically, true jadeite is a sodium aluminum pyroxene formed under conditions of high pressure and low temperature, occurring within serpentinized peridotite bodies that are structurally restricted to the structural suture zones of northern Myanmar rather than the geopolitical borders of Yunnan itself. In contrast, true Yunnan jade consists of nephrite, a calcium magnesium iron silicate amphibole formed through contact metamorphism where granitic fluids interacted with dolomitic limestones, producing dense, fibrous masses within the local mountain strata. Historically, the famous Southwestern Silk Road routed vast quantities of Burmese jadeite rough through Yunnan border towns like Tengchong and Ruili beginning in the Han Dynasty and peaking during the Qing Dynasty in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where local artisans quarried local nephrite and established massive processing workshops. This heavy regional processing, quarrying, and carving industry flourished continuously for centuries, and following a revival of private enterprise in the late twentieth century, Yunnan's specialized jade cutting, trading, and localized nephrite quarrying operations remain heavily active through 2026.

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