What Is Jade? Two Different Minerals Share One Name

"Jade" isn't one mineral — it's a name shared by two chemically distinct ones: jadeite and nephrite. Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral, generally rarer and capable of the vivid emerald-green seen in fine "imperial jade," colored by trace chromium. Nephrite belongs to a different mineral family (the tremolite-actinolite series), tends toward softer, creamier greens, and owes its exceptional toughness to a dense, interlocking fibrous structure.

Jadeite is mined primarily in Myanmar, source of most fine gem-quality material. Nephrite has a much wider distribution — historically significant in China, and also mined in Canada and New Zealand, where it holds deep cultural significance as pounamu.