Jades, S.A. has been welcoming visitors to its factory and show rooms since it opened its doors in 1974. This is the year archaeologist, Mary Lou Johnson, rediscovered the lost Jade quarries of the Maya in the Motagua Valley, Zacapa, Guatemala and began the Jade industry again after 500 years of dormancy.

What is Jade?

It is a generic term used in mineralogy to describe two different stones “Jadeite” (Sodium-Aluminum-Silicate) and “Nephrite” (Calcium-Magnesium-Iron Silicate) The first one is the hardest and densest with more brilliant colors and variety, it is found in 6 places worldwide : Burma (Myanmar) and Guatemala are the largest producers. Nephrite is found in 16 places; is waxy to the touch; has a fibrous structure and it is used primarily for carving. Canada is the largest producer of nephrite in the world.

What is the origin of the term Jade? Formerly the Aztecs called it Chalchihuitl” and the Mayas called it “Yax Tun” (green stone). When the Spaniards arrived in Mesoamerica they noticed that the natives rubbed a green stone on the abdomen to cure kidney and liver ailments. They called the stone “Pierre de yjade” (Lapiz Nefriticus). An error in French printing gave us the term jade because instead of writing “Pierre d’ ejade” they wrote “Pierre de Jade”. Later, a French scientist Alexis Damour (1863) determined that Chinese Jade was chemically different from Burmese jade and coined the term “Jadeite” for the Burmese jade and “Nephrite” for the Chinese variety.. When the first jade stones were found in Guatemala (1953). It was noted that they were jadeite-jade variety.