by Emily “D.D.” Frontiere
for the Roskin Gem News Report
The Monterey Bay Jade Festival in mid-June has quickly become a must-see event in the Americas for jade collectors, carvers, enthusiasts, and those who just want to learn more about this magical material known as “the stone from heaven.” Last year, at the 2025 festival, Jade Events Unlimited hosted the inaugural International Jade Summit (held at the Monterey Bay Jade Festival) where attendees heard from industry experts including Kirk Makepeace of Jade West Mining from Canada, Guatemalan jade miner, expert, and owner of Jade Maya, Mary Lou Ridinger, and Jeff Mason, owner of Mason-Kay — the primary sponsor of the Summit.
The 2025 Summit certainly set the bar high, and organizers plan to keep the momentum going for 2026. The Summit will be held on Saturday, June 13th, by featuring a number of prestigious presenters including Dr. Aaron Palke, a Senior Researcher of colored gems at GIA, as well as world-renowned jade carver and sculptor Georg Schmerholz. But that’s not all!
Participants will also hear from William Ralston-Saul, CEO of Jade Vault Ltd., presenting on jadeite from the Itmurundy mine in Kazakhstan (jadeite we will refer to as “fei cui”). Not only will attendees learn about the material from this new-to-market fei cui deposit, but they will, for the first time, be able to purchase some.
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
In anticipation of the Summit, William kindly spoke with us about the deposit, how he became involved with it, how the partially exposed fei cui monoliths are mined, and the type of material he plans to bring with him to California.
Mining is a Family Affair
William is no stranger to running a mining venture. The son of a miner, he worked in Tajikistan on a gold mining operation at the age of eighteen. Five years later, William founded Saddleback Gold Corporation and applied for a gold mining license. As the government processed this application, they asked him to work on a coal project. “So,” William said, “we built a coal mine. Then another. Then another. We ended up being the biggest coal producer in the country, and still no gold! I was in Tajikistan for thirteen years before we were bought out by a Hong Kong company in 2011.”
At this point in his career, William said that he “was eager to be involved in an industry that wasn’t 99.9% men,” and he built a low-cost private school in India which now educates about a thousand students. Although he “stepped back” from mining for eight years, it turned out that the industry was not done with him.
An Unexpected Opportunity
Three years ago, William was presenting at a teach-in event where he was approached by Kevin Foo, the Founder and Chairman of Jade Resources Limited, which owns the jade mine in Kazakhstan. He laughed when he said that his first reaction was to run in the opposite direction – “I was like, ‘no way I’m going back to mining!’ Particularly not jade, because I didn’t know much about jade at all… but Kevin sent me the geological documents and… it’s a slippery slope. Before I knew it, I’m back in the mining business. And I’m happy I went back. There is nothing like going back to something that you know really well and have confidence in.”
What caught William’s eye and convinced him to jump on board was that this particular jade deposit is special. He noted that not only is it the largest deposit of fei cui in the world, it is also a primary deposit whereas most jade is mined from alluvial deposits. The fei cui mountain is partially uncovered, with two monoliths exposed. William likened the monoliths to an iceberg – “There is about ten percent you can see above ground, and ninety percent underground. But the ten percent we already have is huge!”
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
A Passed-Over Treasure
Interestingly, while William became aware of the Itmurundy Mine just a few years ago, the deposit was not a secret. Soviet geologists are credited with discovering it in the mid-twentieth century – “I don’t know if they set out to find jade, but it’s so large, it’s hard to miss.” They removed a great deal of the overburden, further unearthing the monoliths, and drilled about a hundred and eighty holes to see what was inside.
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
At that time, because very little was known about jadeite found outside Myanmar, very little was done to develop the project. In fact, William shared local Kazakh lore that says some of the jade was sent to a copper smelter to be used as flux.
Post Soviet Union, the deposit eventually ended up in the hands of Jade Resources Limited. The founder of Jade Resources, together with his team, was initially skeptical that the Itmurundy deposit was actually jadeite jade (fei cui) as no official fei cui standard testing method existed at the time. Still, they performed hundreds of tests on the material and every indicator showed that it was mineralogically almost identical to Burmese fei cui.
Years later, when Dr. Edward Liu at the Gemmological Association of Hong Kong, launched the Standard Method for Testing Fei cui that was used in mainland China, Jade Resources was able to prove that they were indeed sitting on a vast deposit of fei cui.
Initially, William acted as CEO of Jade Vault, Ltd., the main off-take partner for the Itmurundy mine, but he rapidly became more involved in the mining process. Early last year he became the COO of Jade Resources, Ltd., the mine owner. – “My profession is that I build and run mines. I have for my whole life. This one was actually easier than the others.”
A Fight with The Elements
As the monoliths are above ground, they are exposed to the elements which results in weathering of the outer layers. William described the local environment as “aggressive,” with temperatures ranging from -40°C in the winter, to 40°C during the summer months. As a result, the surface is thinly oxidized and fractured, making the outer material fragile. No explosives are used in the mine as these can crack the jadeite. Rather, miners working on the monoliths from March through December use a hydraulic breaker. “This,” William says, “creates a lot of waste. Long term, as we move away from the weathered ore we have on Monolith 2, we will utilize different machines that use saws rather than breakers, so we minimize damage to the jadeite. We are just about to order our first diamond wire saw.”
The machine destroys lower-quality material that wouldn’t be sellable anyway.
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
Quality Expected to Rise
The quality of the Itmurundy fei cui is projected to increase at deeper depths for two reasons. First, William mentioned deposits in Myanmar and Guatemala where there are instances of quality significantly improving as depth is increased. Secondly, the company has the advantage of holding extensive exploration data from the Soviet exploration drilling program. This data has enabled the team to identify high-grade zones in the orebody – “we know where the good stuff is!”
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
Jade Resources plans to grow the mining team to about twenty people over the next few years and increase production.
A Traditional Appearance
The vast majority of the jade trade is in China. There, the finest Burmese material is valued above all else. William says that Kazakh fei cui can often resemble Burmese material of similar quality due to comparable colors – “We have done blind tests with jade traders in China and Burma and they can’t tell the difference when faced with samples of equal quality.”
Chinese buyers have recently shown a willingness to accept new types of fei cui, as evidenced by the increasing popularity of the blue/grey/green Guatemalan product. William finds this new open-mindedness encouraging – “The opportunity for us is now.”
Another highly desirable quality of the Kazakh fei cui is that all of the products are entirely traceable. William says that the jade trade has struggled with murky supply chains, while Kazakh fei cui offers a fully transparent provenance for its buyers.
that the supply chain is completely transparent.
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
A Lifestyle Brand with Novel Products
The quality of the Itmurundy fei cui being mined now is commercial and utility-grade. In addition to jewelry products, alternatives have been developed including some unexpected items to kick off commercial manufacturing: funerary urns and mobile phone cases. At the luxury end of the spectrum, we have backlit jade panels and table tops cut just 2mm thick which glow beautifully when illuminated.
Fei Cui and the Afterlife
Those without Eastern heritage may not realize that Chinese culture has long associated jade with the afterlife, hence the nickname, “the stone of heaven.” William predicts that long-held cultural beliefs will cause demand for the funerary urns to skyrocket – “If you look into Chinese history, back to the Han dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, the emperor’s family would be buried in jade burial suits. The Chinese assign a spiritual meaning to jade. It protects from bad luck, makes you wealthy, and grants an easy pass to the afterlife. Our plan is to bring the jade burial back.”
“Our unique selling point is that we have huge pieces of jade that we can turn into large format items. Urns require a big starting rock, and are a very difficult product to make. Remember that jade is one of the toughest materials to cut.”
The potential to commercialize jade funerary urns has been proven. William said that nephrite urns have been sold in Taiwan for years. He did note a cultural difference in the popular shapes, saying that the Taiwan market likes simple cylinders while Northern Chinese citizens prefer a rectangular shape. Sales for the urns began just weeks before the publication of the article.
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
A Lucky Piece of Fei Cui in Your Pocket
compatible with each specific design.
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
The second product featuring Kazakh fei cui is a line of mobile phone cases featuring an inlaid gemstone disc. Ralston-Saul worked with various artists to create a whole line of unique designs. He even collaborated with one of China’s space agencies to design a scene around a grey fei cui moon.
The Company does not directly handle the manufacturing of the discs, but they do carefully select the stones that are sent to be cut and polished for each design. Like the urns, sales of the cases are just starting to roll out.
About 70% of the material is grey and the remaining 30% is green.
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
What is Coming to the 2026 International Jade Summit
William’s primary goal in presenting at the Jade Summit is to introduce Kazakh fei cui to Western artists and collectors. He will bring some finished bangles and beads, but he is more excited about rough and cubed samples of various sizes which he wants to sell to carvers.
is a good representative of the wider deposit.
Photo courtesy of William Ralston-Saul.
Someone who has already had a chance to handle the gem is Justin Barrett of Just in Jade. In addition to being an internationally awarded jade carver, he is also the president of Jade Events Unlimited which oversees the Monterey Bay Jade Festival. Barrett is very impressed with the material, saying, “Kazakh jadeite shows promising potential for the west coast jade earring and carving communities.”
Photo by Adrienne Gammiere.
Used with permission.
If you want to learn about this massive deposit of fei cui and get a sneak peek of the material that the Itmurundy mine will soon be producing, William Ralston-Saul’s talk is a must-see event!
About the Author:
Emily “D.D.” Frontiere is a gemologist, gems and jewelry appraiser, and freelance writer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can read more of her work here as well as posted with the International Gem Society. ddfrontiere@gmail.com.
