Raw Type A Jadeite Boulder 2.1kg — Apple Green Burmese

2.1 kg of raw Type A Burmese jadeite, running with vibrant apple green through the rough matrix. This is jade as it comes out of the ground, uncut and unpolished, which puts it in an unusual position: it's equally a display specimen for a mineral collection and a substantial piece of working stock for anyone who cuts. Most people who buy a boulder this size end up leaving it whole, and it earns its place either way.

The term worth understanding is Type A, because it isn't a quality grade the way buyers often assume. It's a treatment classification. Type A means the jadeite is natural and unaltered: no acid bleaching, no polymer resin injection, no dye. Type B has been soaked in acid to strip discolouration and then filled with resin to repair the damage that leaves behind. Type C has been dyed. Both can look convincing on the day you buy them, and both degrade over the years in ways untreated jade simply does not. This piece is Type A, from Myanmar, undyed and untreated.

A closer look

Jadeite is scarce because of the conditions it demands. It forms only under the high pressure and comparatively low temperature found in subduction zones, where one tectonic plate is forced beneath another, which is why gem quality deposits are so few worldwide and why Myanmar has supplied nearly all the finest material for centuries. The internal structure explains the rest of its reputation. Jadeite is built from densely interlocking crystals, and though it isn't the hardest gem, it's among the toughest natural materials known, so resistant to shattering that Neolithic cultures shaped it into axe heads long before anyone thought to wear it.

• Stone: Natural jadeite, Type A
• Origin: Myanmar, Burma
• Colour: Apple green through the rough matrix
• Treatment: None, undyed and untreated
• Weight: 2,100 g, 4.63 lb
• Form: Raw uncut boulder
• Chakra: Heart

For cutters, and for collectors

If you cut, there's enough material here for cabochons, beads, small carvings or slab work, and the colour visible at the surface is a promising sign of what lies under it. Being honest about rough, though: the surface only ever hints. That uncertainty is the whole tradition around Burmese jade, where buyers have gambled on unopened boulders for generations precisely because nobody knows what's inside until the saw goes through. If you'd rather not find out, a small polished window cut into one face previews the interior without committing the stone.

Living with it

Raw jade asks almost nothing of you. It's chemically stable and indifferent to light, and at this weight the only real hazard is a shelf that was never built for four and a half pounds. Dust it dry, or wipe it with a barely damp cloth. In Chinese tradition jade carries abundance, harmony and protection, and in feng shui a large raw piece is often placed where a household gathers rather than tucked away.

Please note: crystals are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Keep small pieces away from young children.