Polychrome Desert Jasper

Polychrome Desert Jasper is a beautiful and colorful Jasper that can best be described as polychrome (the act of decorating things in a variety of colors) in appearance. It includes red, pink, brown and grey Jasper mixed in colorful swirling patterns. It comes from the Norcross-Madagascar Jasper fields. Norcross found Desert Jasper near Analalava, a coastal town and commune (Malagasy: kaominina) in north-western Madagascar over the Mozambique Channel. It was introduced in 1994. It is also referred to as Polychrome Jasper (based on coloring).

Norcross Madagascar Group (NMG) owns the Ambarijeby claim, which is the main source field in Madagascar consisting of the Majunga region and the Ankondromena region in Madagascar's Middlewest area. The Ambarijeby claim is where most of the Madagascar carnelian and Desert Jasper is found.

Norcross has discovered that 15 separate Chinese groups were stealing rock and minerals inside the claim, with 40-80 tons being shipped to China every month, and 10 tons going to the capital city, Antananarivo for local lapidaries. The amount of the rare Desert Jasper stone illegally obtained from the claim, and sent to the local market, was so excessive that the main surface deposit of this material was depleted. NMG has been forced to go into unexplored reserve areas of the claim to find more of this material.

Please use caution when shopping on “auction” websites. Desert Jasper or Polychrome Jasper listed as coming from China or Antananarivo are highly suspect as being “poached” specimens.

All of our specimens will be exclusively procured from the Norcross-Madagascar Group (NMG).

We strongly urge all collectors to steer clear of illegally obtained specimens.