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[Jhon P]

I had something come up and couldn't go out this weekend. I had to make a run to Reno so I stopped by Peter the jade man and rockhounded his gautamalian jadeite.  I don't think it cost me more than if I had drove out to the middle of Nevada. I had to put a piece back, very nice emperial green,  when he said it was $300.00

[lithicbeads]

Looks like you have a very interesting selection. I saw the new delivery of Apple Valley agate from Morocco when at Richardsons last and had the same sense of sticker shock because even at the very reasonable $5 a lb the size of the rough made the deal a no go.

[Jhon P]

I wish I could of paid $5.00 a lb   but he did make me a deal, about half price of what he lists it for at the big sur jade fest. he felt that he owed me after I helped him figure out what was wrong with his cab king lapidary machine.
 Peter is an interesting person, he owns land in Guatemala and the tenants that farm it stack the rocks on the fence line and he has someone that sorts the jade out and he knows land owners that let him collect on their property in the river bottom (for a fee)  he is full of stories about his yearly trips there .
 picture was taken dry, I will post pictures after I cut some some it. after I figure out what I am going to do with,  a knife for sure

[irockhound]

What size are they? Hard to get sense of scale from pic

[Jhon P]

8 1/2 lb. the longest one are about 5" to 6" and about 1 1/2 wide 
The light colored one is what his wife calls rainbow. There was a piece I wanted that was a rainbow with a lot of light purple but it was to high a price. I had budgeted $200 and spent it all.
He has black jadeite that was out of my budget also. That Is prefect  black without so much as I dot of any other color

[finegemdesigns]

Last I heard there was an export ban on rough jadeite going out of Guatemala. You need an export license and there's only 2-3 companies that have them. And these companies make jadeite products they sell and don't export rough. So if this is the case how is your friend getting the jadeite legally out of Guatemala?

[Jhon P]

They are very strict on export but he has some connections with the local government and being a property owner may help. Next time I talk to him I will get him to explain it to me again.  He dose a lot of charity stuff there also. I know that he will drive a cross the border with a ton or more in his motor home (a converted diesel buss )

[finegemdesigns]

A TON?

lol

I'm guessing there might be some sort of "gratuity" to pay at the border?

And here I thought all along that Guatemala wasn't a corrupt country. Silly me.

[Jhon P]

He didn't talk about having to pay to get a cross the boarder with Mexico. He talks about that Chinese jade mafia. They kill people over jadeite. They have gone in there with big crews of workers and stripped areas a and than a sneak it out of the country somehow. (Corrupt government officials?)
 I don't remember the full story but he was on the ground floor of prospecting for jadeite there.
He brings back a lot of nerd rocks. Rare rocks that collectors are interested in. No restrictions on nerd rocks and some are worth more than the jadeite.

[finegemdesigns]

He didn't talk about having to pay to get a cross the boarder with Mexico. He talks about that Chinese jade mafia. They kill people over jadeite. They have gone in there with big crews of workers and stripped areas a and than a sneak it out of the country somehow. (Corrupt government officials?)
 I don't remember the full story but he was on the ground floor of prospecting for jadeite there.
He brings back a lot of nerd rocks. Rare rocks that collectors are interested in. No restrictions on nerd rocks and some are worth more than the jadeite.

Is this what you are looking for?

http://www.finegemdesigns.com/jadeite-smuggling-in-guatemala.htm

[Jhon P]

That sounds like what Peter has told me. I will ask him what the procedure is for him to get the jadeite out of the country. I know that most of it comes off of his own property. He leases it to farmers and than pays them to collect the rock when the fields are plowed. If he goes to collect on other property (he pays the property owner for the rock ) the takes what he calls friends with guns. For protection agains the chinese