New market opening for B.C. jade producers

New market opening for B.C. jade producers
Scott Simpson, Special to BNN.ca from Market One Media
 Aerial view of the "A" Lens at the Empress Jade site near Dease Lake British Columbia
Aerial view of the "A" Lens at the Empress Jade site near Dease Lake British Columbia, Image courtesy of Market One Media
Electra Stone thinks innovation is key to success in jade production
Hard rock mining doesn’t get much harder than harvesting nephrite jade in northwestern British Columbia.
Swing a prospector’s pick at a raw jade boulder and it deflects the hit back with jarring impact — and typically without conceding so much as a scratch. It’s tougher than steel or granite and rebuffs conventional rock-splitting methods.
It’s challenging to get saleable jade to market. B.C.’s productive mines — or quarries, if you prefer — tend to be located deep in the bush, a hundred kilometres or more from a highway. Snow and river levels make them inaccessible all but three months a year. As much as 90 per cent of the jade in a boulder field misses the quality standard for jewelry, sculptures and figurines. As such, it gets left on the ground.
In spite of these obstacles, B.C. annually produces 75 per cent of the world’s nephrite jade, according to the provincial government. Now, a new market is emerging — if miners can be innovative enough to take advantage.
Dean Cloutier, of Vancouver’s DP Cloutier Industrial Design, is finding a new appetite for jade among Canadians of Chinese background. They share China’s 5,000-year appreciation for jade, but they’re turning their backs on conventional jade sculptures and jewelry. Instead, they’re attracted to sleek alternatives such as the gold- or nickel-frame coffee and side tables topped with inset slabs of polished jade that Cloutier produces in his studio.
Demand for jade in furniture and fixtures is also expanding among wealthy residents of China, Hong Kong and Taipei — in particular, those who’ve begun to embrace European and American architectural and design aesthetics,” Cloutier said.
As an industrial designer, I like to work with materials from my backyard, so to speak, and B.C. happens to produce most of the world’s jade at the moment,” Cloutier said.
My studio is in Vancouver and a lot of my market is here — second generation Chinese