Green Nephrite Jade Sterling Pendant

Most of us are familiar with green jade but jade also comes in the following colors, black, white, orange, purple, brown, yellow, pink, red, blue, gray & mixes of these colors. The most valuable variety of jade is the emerald green jadeite, known as "imperial jade". Jade comes in two forms, Jadeite & Nephrite. Nephrite is the more common. Jadeite & Nephrite have very different mineral compositions. Jadeite is an aluminum-rich pyroxene and nephrite is a magnesium-rich amphibole. Visually they look so much the same that they ended up with the common name jade.