An enormous piece of jade that one person described as being “as big as two houses” has been discovered in Myanmar’s Kachin State on Thursday.
Reports of the find initially circulated in photos on social media. The pictures were widely shared and later confirmed by Radio Free Asia.
The stone, which was estimated to weigh more than 200 tons, was found in a mine in Hpakant, ground zero of the multibillion-dollar jade industry in Myanmar.
Yadanar Taungtann company apparently owns the mine. U Tint Soe, an MP from the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Hpakant, took it as a good sign as the company is partially owned by the government.
The lawmaker said the find boded well for the new administration, referring to Aung San Suu Kyi’s cabinet, formed in March after her party, the NLD, won elections in November.
“It is as big as two houses that are 9-foot square. I assume that it is a present of fate for citizens, the government and our party as it was found out in the time of our government,” he was quoted as saying in Radio Free Asia.
To give some idea of how big the piece was, he posed in front of it (see photo above).
Most of Myanmar’s jade flows to China, but the industry has been plagued by labor abuses and shadowy accounting.
A report published a year ago this month by NGO Global Witness said that the value of jade production in 2014 alone was about $31 billion, more than twice previous estimates and nearly half of Myanmar’s entire GDP.
