A Brief History of Jade Mining

Jadeite is the king of jades and the national jade of many countries. It is also internationally renowned. With the popularity of Burmese jadeite, research on Burmese jadeite has also emerged in an endless stream, especially about the time when Burmese jadeite was discovered and mined, attracting countless jadeite experts and enthusiasts to come and study it.

Jade was once popular in my country in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China: for example, a jade feather tube owned by Ronglu, the Minister of the Imperial Household Department of the Qing Dynasty, was worth 13,000 taels of gold. In the mid-1930s, Beijing jade tycoon Tie Yuting sold a pair of bracelets to Du Yuesheng in Shanghai for 40,000 silver dollars.

There is no exact evidence as to when mining began. Judging from historical documents and unearthed cultural relics, the mining of jade may have been relatively early, with sporadic mining occurring as early as the Han Dynasty.

The main importing country of jadeite is my country. The jade-producing areas of Menggong and Myitkyina in Myanmar are only 150 kilometers away from the Yunnan border of my country. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, this place was under the jurisdiction of Yongchang Prefecture (now Baoshan City, Yunnan Province). Due to historical reasons, jadeite, known as the "Oriental treasure", has been imported into my country through border towns such as Tengchong and Ruili in Yunnan for four or five hundred years.

Before the British invaded Myanmar in 1885, Ligong, which was rich in jade, was a chieftain territory granted by the "Front of Yunnan Province" and belonged to China, under the jurisdiction of Tengchong Yuezhou. Therefore, the historical book "Travels in Yunnan and Guizhou" records: "Tengyue produces jade." After the British invaded Burma, they incorporated Ligong into Burma.

Jade mines are vast and difficult to manage, and there is a lot of tax evasion. It is inconvenient for the British colonists to mine themselves, so they adopted a tax-packing method, putting the jade mine tax revenue out to bid, called "calling for a position". The position was called once for a period of three years, and the bidders were responsible for their own profits and losses. The tax was levied at 10% of the estimated value, and the successful bidders were basically Chinese. This method was used for decades. From May 1942 to August 1945, Japan occupied Burma, which became a battlefield in World War II and jade mining almost stopped.

After Myanmar's independence, jade mining continued to follow the old British methods for a long period of time. The mining and trade of jade was still mostly controlled by the Chinese, and the products were marketed domestically and internationally.

Until February 1966, the Myanmar government prohibited private mining of jadeite, and it was instead mined by the Ministry of Mines and the Geological Exploration and Production Company. The mined jade was purchased exclusively by the 19th Company under the Ministry of Trade. Since then, jade production has dropped significantly.

After the nationalization policy was implemented in 1969, the Ministry of Mines stipulated that all jade-related businesses would be operated by the state, and the Jade Mine Planning Committee of the Mineral Resources Exploration Company would be responsible for mining and distribution. After the military government took over power in 1988, it decided to give private industrialists and businessmen more freedom on the premise of consolidating state-owned enterprises, but the right to mine jade was still controlled by the government.

The Myanmar State Economic Enterprise Law, promulgated in March 1989, stipulates that the exploration, mining and export of gemstones can only be managed by government-owned state-owned enterprises.

The Myanmar National Mining Law, promulgated in September 1994, stipulates that the government has the right to declare gem areas with mining value as "gem special zones", and the government controls mining and sales in the special zones. Although the Myanmar government has formulated a series of policies and regulations on precious stones, for a long time, most of the jade producing areas are still controlled by the Kachin Independence Army, who not only directly mine and operate, but also control the passage to the Yunnan border of China. The Myanmar government only controls a small number of production areas, and the supply it can obtain only accounts for 20% of the jade production, so it is difficult to truly control the mining and sales of jadeite.

In February 1994, the Kachin Army signed a formal peace agreement with the government. Peace was restored in the region and jade production increased. However, the Kachin Army was unwilling to make concessions on the mining and management rights of jade. So far, the two sides have not reached a final agreement.

Recently, Myanmar, which has been closed to the outside world for many years, has begun to make some changes to its domestic economic policies.

The Myanmar government has noticed that Myanmar is the only producer of high-quality jadeite in the world and a famous producer of high-quality rubies and sapphires. It should control the resource advantages of precious stones in its own hands. After all, selling resources and primary products alone is not a long-term solution. Moreover, precious stones are disposable resources and face the risk of depletion after vigorous mining. Therefore, the Myanmar government has controlled the output of precious stones, actively carried out deep processing of precious stones, limited the export volume of primary products, and utilized resources scientifically and rationally.

Due to the influence of long-term planned economy and domestic instability, coupled with high taxes and a huge gap between the official and private exchange rates, most of the jade produced in Myanmar has gone abroad and the government can only get a small part.

After 1949, my country's jade imports dropped sharply, and Burmese jade merchants had to go far away to transport the mined jade to Chiang Mai, Thailand, thousands of miles away, to trade with Hong Kong, Japanese and Taiwanese businessmen. Over time, Chiang Mai, Thailand, has changed its old appearance of a street market with a few thatched houses into a world-class jade trading center with tens of thousands of people. Its annual turnover accounts for about 70% of Myanmar's jade production.

It was not until after the reform and opening up that my country resumed the trade, production and processing of the jade industry, and China-Myanmar border trade became active. Due to the advantages of historical and geographical conditions, in the past decade or so, Burmese jade merchants have transported jade into the Yunnan border of my country, gradually forming five major trading markets: Wanding, Ruili, Longchuan, Yingjiang and Tengchong.

At the recent Belt and Road Summit Forum, China and Myanmar signed a trade and economic cooperation agreement, and signed a memorandum of understanding on the China-Myanmar Border Economic Cooperation Zone with the Myanmar Ministry of Commerce.

In Myanmar, non-compliant jade mining and cooperation models have begun to be eliminated and banned; Hpakant, Myanmar has issued a notice prohibiting foreigners from entering its mining area and provided generous rewards for whistleblowers. These are objective reflections that the Myanmar government has begun to rectify and standardize trade rules. After a major adjustment, the jade trade between China and Myanmar will officially move towards standardization and maturity under the influence of the "Belt and Road" initiative. This will play a positive role in the long-term development and prosperity of the entire jade industry.

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