In a major conservation and blockchain digitization event, the Wheaton Creek Jade Mine has partnered with Element United to digitize the mine’s precious elements on the blockchain. This partnership includes an agreement to immediately cease mining operations in return for access to the Element United Digital Economy.
The announcement represents a 3rd major mine partnership for us here at Element, bringing our portfolio of assayed precious elements available for digitization to over $200 billion dollars.
The Nephrite Jade of British Columbia found on the Wheaton Creek claim has been linked to the Tahltan First Nation and their culture for over 4,000 years. First Nations Peoples discovered this stone alongside river beds which they then carved and used in axes, knives, and other tools.
Growing Chinese demand for Jade, historically “the imperial gem”, has led to widespread mining operations all over the world, with enormous destruction to natural habitats and Indigenous communities, including in British Columbia.
“These jade and placer gold operations have unacceptable impacts on the Tahltan Nation,” notes Tahltan Central Government President Chad Day. “Our community members and staff have camera footage and several eye-witness accounts of illegal poaching of our wildlife and other serious environmental infractions…”
Jade mining in British Columbia takes place in mountainous regions over swaths of beautiful acreages, sometimes digging up to 50 feet deep to expose jade deposit boulders, which are then hauled over long distances for processing and export to Asia.
Mining, manufacturing, and shipping jade is a fossil-fuel intensive process that produces, in the case of the Wheaton Creek claim, a massive estimated carbon cost of 8,754 metric tons of CO2 per year, per acre.
With this agreement to cease mining in favor of the digital products Element is creating, the estimated yearly CO2 savings across the entire Wheaton Creek claim amounts to a staggering figure: over 26 million metric tons of carbon saved per year.
