Miners in Burma have unearthed one of the world’s most valuable pieces of jade -it worth £140million.
It was found in a mine in the jade-producing Kachin state, in the north of the country.
Workers were excavating rare gems at a remote mine when they stumbled across the gem stone.
The rock, weighing 175 tonnes and measuring 9ft high and 18ft long, is second only in size to the carved statue at the Jade Buddha Palace in China which weighs 260 tonnes.
Burma – or Myanmar – is the world’s largest producer of jadeite – and the 50 billion dollar a year industry represents half of the country’s GDP , where it is known as the “stone of heaven”.
