Potential for tourism development from jade resources

(QBĐT) - With the aim of promoting the advantages of Quang Binh's mineral potential in economic development, especially for the tourism industry in the current period, the Provincial Geological Association has implemented the project "Research and evaluation of semi-precious stone (jade) resources in the West of Le Thuy district, Quang Binh province to exploit and manufacture products for tourism development". The project is expected to clarify the prospects of semi-precious stone (jade) minerals in the province, thereby changing the role of minerals in local economic development.

According to Master Mai Van Hac, Project Manager, the area containing semi-precious jade stones limited from Ngan Thuy commune (Le Thuy) to Truong Son commune (Quang Ninh) was discovered in the 60s of the last century. Since then, at least 5 geological agencies of the North Central Geological Federation and the Northern Geological Mapping Federation have come to inspect and survey, but because it was not the main task assigned, the conclusions were: The ore point has not been thoroughly studied, the semi-precious stones were cut by 8 systems of cracks..., or there may be prospects in the deep or far parts of the fault. Therefore, the semi-precious stone mine has not had the basis to carry out further research work to bring the semi-precious jade stone mineral into exploration and exploitation to serve the economic development of Quang Binh province in general and the tourism industry in particular.

Since 2016, the Provincial Geological Association has been collecting samples for the Provincial Museum and has discovered that the area in Ngan Thuy commune has semi-precious jade with good monolithic quality and great value. The project aims to study the quality and forecast the semi-precious stone resources in the western area of Le Thuy district to produce souvenir products for tourists . Thanks to that, it is expected to expand and diversify the province's tourism industry to develop with many locations, many fields, diversify tourism products, increase the scale of the number of products, enrich the fields of social life, serve domestic and foreign tourists.

On-site inspection of jade semi-precious stone resources.

Conducted from September 2023 to May 2025, the project was deployed by the Provincial Geological Association with many effective methods, such as: Collecting and synthesizing existing documents; fieldwork; surveying, geological mapping route and searching for ore boulders and ore (semi-precious stones) at a scale of 1:10,000; surveying, geological mapping route and searching for ore boulders (semi-precious stones) at a scale of 1:5,000; constructing trenches to clear the road to collect samples for studying the quality of semi-precious stones... From there, the researchers determined that, in general, the weather, hydrometeorology, human economy , security and order as well as the labor force in the two communes of Ngan Thuy and Lam Thuy (Le Thuy) are very favorable for future exploration and exploitation of mines. At the same time, the research results also determine the occurrence and distribution of boulders and semi-precious stone ores (jade) in the research area as well as the geological characteristics of this area.

In addition, comparing the standards and current sample analysis results collected at the mine, it can be said that the chalcedony jade mine in Ngan Thuy commune currently has "semi-precious jade" with 4 types of stones with colors that can be distinguished by the naked eye (semi-precious stone with blue, dark gray color, fine grain; semi-precious stone with dark blue color, fine grain; semi-precious stone with reddish brown color, fine grain, and semi-precious stone with light yellow green color, fine grain). Thus, the chalcedony jade mine in Ngan Thuy commune, if further researched, will reach the national or world level. The recent trial production samples carried out in Da Nang city show that the raw material of semi-precious jade in Ngan Thuy commune has met all 3 standards proposed by the Vietnam Gemstone Association, which are: Beautiful, durable and rare. It is expected that the products of the topic, when explored, exploited and widely manufactured, will be favored by the market.

At the acceptance meeting of the project by the Provincial Science Council, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology Pham Thanh Nam acknowledged the serious and responsible working spirit of the unit implementing the task and emphasized that the product of the task is a valuable source of documents, contributing to proving and affirming the existence of semi-precious jade with industrial value in the western region of Le Thuy district and Quang Ninh district. This is an important scientific basis for orienting the exploitation, processing and development of jade products associated with the tourism industry and local economy in the coming time.

The topic also proposes solutions to exploit the value of mineral resources to serve tourism development, such as: Mining methods, processing methods, bringing stone art products to the market, planning the Ngoc Mountain eco-tourism area...

Mai Nhan

Source: https://baoquangbinh.vn/khoa-hoc-cong-nghe/202506/tiem-nang-phat-trien-du-lich-tu-tai-nguyen-da-ngoc-bich-2226913/