Gemmological and Mineralogical Characteristics of Nephrite from Guangxi

Recently a new kind of jade with distinctive characteristics was found in Guangxi，the colour of which is mainly white，grey－white，and occasionally cyan.This jade is mostly of wax luster，and those high－quality ones could be of grease luster but the most distinctive feature is pattern of“Songhua”.The samples collected from the mine are tested by conventional gemmological tests as refractive index，specific gravity，Fourier transform infrared(FTIR)，X－ray diffraction(XRD)and scanning electron microscope(SEM).The results show that the mineral composition of the new jade is mainly tremolite，R.I.and S.G which is similar to nephrite from Xinjiang，and also show that tremolite grains are distributed evenly and closely interwined.The textures of this jade can be classified into micro－fiber interwoven texture，weakly directional micro－fiber texture，and flaky metacryst texture.With delicate structures，nephrite from Guangxi is of great prospects in market.