Namibia Picture Jasper mine

Picture Jasper is mined on a farm situated in the Southern part of Namibia, known for its rugged terrain and pristine beauty of the grassy plains and mountainous area.

A few meters below the sandy surface lie the hard rock within which the incredible banded patterns of the Picture Jasper is found.

Where the rock is mined, a large area is first carefully excavated, removing the top soil or overburden to expose the rock bed. Holes are then drilled into the rock and with the use of specialized, non-detonating chemical compound, which reacts very quickly when ignited to produce high volumes of harmless gas. The gas enters into the fractures created from the percussive drilling and into the natural fractures and planes of weakness of the rock to produce a shearing of the rock often called splitting.

Large blocks are removed form the area and further split or chiseled to determine the grading of the “picture” of pattern within.

Skilled and experienced workmen carefully examine and chisel away at each block to expose or chop out the varying sizes and grades of Picture stone. A time consuming process, with pieces varying between 1kg – 120kg in size and of different grading.

Once examined the individual pieces are grouped according to grade and size, ready to be weighed.

International Trade - Exports

Higher grade picture stone is extremely sought after and popular in the manufacture of jewellery and various curios crafts in the international market. Large quantities of rough stone are currently exported to manufactures world-wide.