General Information of the Jade
Few people think the rich History of the Jade of America, in fact the word Jade comes from "Stone of Loin", the name that you/they gave him/her the Spaniards when seeing that the Mayan used it for illnesses of the Kidneys, was also called "Lapis Nephriticus", of where it derives the word Nefrita that call Jade in some countries.
The Jade is not a mineral, but a form of denominating, indistinctly, to two different minerals, Jadeíta and Nefrita that he/she leaves of having Silicato of Aluminum (Si0) in common, they should show up in a structure of very fine granules and/or crisscross fibers. This structure contributes him/her the biggest resistance well-known gemológicamente speaking and in spite of its original (5 at 7 in the scale of Mohs) hardness it provides him/her more hardness than the granite.
Jadeíta is a silicato of sodium and aluminum (SIO3) 2. It crystallizes in the system monoclínico. It is of dull waxen aspect and hardness among 6.5 at 8 in the scale of Mohs. Relatively scarce, he/she appears in compact crystalline attachés, next to the serpentine, mineral that, at the moment, it is marketing you as jade. The main locations, exploited from the neolithic one, are in Burma, Tibet Oriental China and Guatemala.
Nefrita on the other hand, (variety of mineral Tremolita) is a silicato of calcium and magnesium (Ca2 (MgFe) 5 (SI4O11) 2 (0H)2 that crystallizes in the rhombic system. Their hardness reaches 6,5 in the scale of Mohs. He/she appears in translucent or opaque compact attachés of crisscross fibers. More common and less more valuable than Jadeíta, the nefrita is distinguished because its shine is oily and he/she splinters when fracturing. The main locations, are in Alaska, New Zealand, Siberia and Turkestan and Guatemalan.
Of these two, the jadeíta is since the most beautiful jade form and the only one that he/she enters in the quality of gem, for the composition of its elements, it is harder and denser and it possesses beautiful and brilliant colors, reasons for which is also the scarcest. This jade class is only in four places of the world: Burma, California, Japan and Guatemala. The jade is part of the history of the indigenous cultures that you/they were developed in the region. Archaeological investigations demonstrate that the Mayan used this mineral in the period Late Preclásico (400 TO .C. up to the 100D.C.), and in the Early Classic (250-450 D.C.).
The jade not only used it as a decoration but rather it was also good to indicate the social position of who carried it; they also gave him/her meanings religious and they attributed him/her medicinal properties. In the Mayan culture the green jade symbolized the fertilized corn, quetzal feathers, the abundance, and mainly the power, symbolism that contributed to award him/her a high value until the point of marketing it among Mayan cities, for very distant that these were located. But during the Spanish conquest the quarries give way and they disappear among the forest. It is not but up to 1950 that the first vestiges of the use of this gem were found and later on the main quarries were located in regions like the area of Motagua, that of Polochic, the Lake of Izabal, Valley of Chixoy, mountain of the Mines, Chuacús and that of Cuchumatanes. This gave place to the emergence of a new industry: the jeweler's factory and objects elaborated with jade.
As jadeíta the rough mineral is known of where they are extracted the badges that will be used for the production of jewels and ornament objects.