Yes, "if." Burmese jadeite is often found in large masses like that. But the top, top quality is exceedingly rare. Most is middling to low quality and misleading treated low-value stones are very common.
But even if Americans want some of that new material it's now illegal to import Burmese jade and rubies into the U.S. The late California Democrat Congressman Tom Lantos wrote a bill ensuring that. The U.S. ban has no effect on the oppressive regime in Myanmar. The Generals are stuffing wads of money into their Swiss accounts from selling the country's resources to the wealthy Chinese.
It’s illegal to import Burmese jade? Pfftt…we’ll see what Obama has to say about THAT law! Flick of the pen…done!
For less than the price of a beer, an injectionist administers the drug directly into the vein of a miner, delivering as many as 800 separate injections from the same dirty needle. Large quantities of the drug are provided by the mine owners, who pay their addicted workers with a daily fix.
An estimated 500,000 miners are paid this way, some consuming as much as 10 grams of pure heroin every day. On top of the unsanitary injections, workers also routinely have unsafe sex with prostitutes, creating an HIV pandemic in the region and giving Myanmar the highest rate of HIV infection among drug users in the world -- nine out of 10 addicted workers are HIV positive.
The trade, however, is a lucrative one. The exploitation of the trade yields billions of dollars each year. Both China and Myanmar governments, and the KIA struggle, stand in the way of assistance that NGOs, the United Nations and the World Health Organization can offer to the region, according to the Australian Financial Review.