A Vancouver jade miner with a quarry on Vancouver Island has made its first shipment of the green gemstone to China.
Electra Stone Ltd. (TSX-V:ELT) operates the Apple Bay aluminum silicate quarry near Port Hardy but currently produces no jade.
It has leases on several potential jade properties, however, and in an attempt to establish a market for B.C. jade in China, has been buying jade mined by other companies to sell into China.
"We don't actually mine any jade ourselves yet," said Tyler Lowes, Electra Stone's corporate development manager.
In attempt to establish a market in China, however, the company acquired 18 tonnes of B.C. Nephrite jade and shipped it to Shanghai.
According to Electra Stone CEO John Costigan, the jade found in B.C. is similar in quality to that found in China.
“The similar geological environment in B.C. provides the conditions to produce the same Nephrite Jade in B.C. as the jade that has be sought after by the people of China for thousands of years,” Costigan, a former vice president of Western Potash Corp. (OTC: WPSHF), said in a press release.
Electra Stone holds leases on six jade properties in B.C., most of them in Northern B.C.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the jade shipped to China was mined at Electra Stone's quarry on Vancouver Island.
