07/11/2021
Hetian Jade:
Colour:White, yellow, bluish white, grey, blackName:Named for the occurrences in Hetian County (Hotan County), Xinjiang Province, China.
A variety of Tremolite Jade
One of the classic Chinese jades. It consists almost entirely of tremolite, but may contain up to 5 wt.-% of impurities such as diopside, epidote, clinozoisite, olivine, dolomite, quartz, magnetite, pyrite, apatite, limonite and carbonaceous matter, which are disseminated in the ground mass and impart various shades of colours. In trade, four colour varieties are distinguished: white, yellow, blue and black Hetian Jade. White Hetian Jade, typically off white to very pale yellow and containing more than 99 wt.-% of tremolite, and yellow Hetian jade, which owes its deeper yellow colour to iron oxide inclusions, are the most valuable ones. The blue varieties contain microscopic inclusions of bluish green silicate minerals (other than actinolite) and the black varieties contain up to 5 wt.-% of both iron minerals and carbonacous matter.
