Question
First Pic Second Pic
Dear professor,
a very nice hand curved statue, but is the stone material Jade and is it from the rare stone?
Many thanks for your help.
AnswerHi Tariq
It is always difficult to answer this question without having the actual specimen. Assuming that the color of the rock is reproduced correctly the top picture might be Jade, but it is still difficult to tell. The term "Jade" is used as a disambiguous term referring usually to two minerals. One is the mineral nephrite which is a greenish mineral belonging to the amphibole mineral group. Amphiboles are often fibrous which can be seen under magnification. The other mineral often traded as Jade is actually the mineral jadeite which belongs to the pyroxene mineral group. The pyroxene jadeite does NOT appear fibrous under magnification. But there are also many minerals traded as Jade that are NOT real Jade.
Another possibility for your sample might be aventurine, a green form of quartz, characterised by its translucency and the presence of platy mineral inclusions that give a shimmering or glistening effect.
There are many tests you can do yourself. Here is a website that might be helpful:
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-Jade-Is-Real
Hopefully this helps answer your question somewhat. If your are really interested in a FREE identification of your specimen, including a several page report, you can give the outreach project of our university a try. Details are found here: http://college.earthscienceeducation.net/MIN/MINID.pdf
