Jade Fever
Jade Fever is a nephrite jade mining-based Canadian reality TV show from Discovery Channel Canada, produced by Omnifilm Entertainment.[1] The show follows glacial deposit placer and hard rock mining efforts in the Cassiar Mountains region and Turnagain River basin of British Columbia, within 100 kilometres of Jade City. Narrated by Martin Strong,[2] the show debuted in April 2015.[3] Jade Fever was nominated for a 2016 Canadian Screen Award in the "Best Factual Program or Series" category.[4][5] As of 2020, there have been 6 seasons.
Jade Fever | |
---|---|
Genre | Documentary, Reality |
Created by | David Gullason Jeffrey Kinnon |
Country of origin | Canada |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 6 |
Production | |
Executive producers | David Gullason Brian Hamilton |
Production locations | Jade City and the Turnagain River basin of British Columbia |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Release | |
Original network | Discovery Canada |
Summary
Jade City is a remote highway stop in northern British Columbia with a community of 25 run by Claudia Bunce and her husband Robin. They mine a huge jade claim and they employ most of the people in town. If they strike it rich everyone wins; if they fail, a whole town falls flat on its face.
Cast
- Claudia Bunce
- matriarch of the Bunce jade mining family,and she is the mine boss bookkeeper
- Robin Bunce
- patriarch of the Bunce jade mining family, heavy truck/construction equipment operator
- Josh Bunce
- their son, mine hand, heavy truck/construction equipment operator (season 1 – present), camp medic (season 3 – present)
- Justin Bunce
- their son, mine hand, prospector, heavy truck/construction equipment operator (season 2 – present), jade tabletop maker (season 3)
- Steve Simonovic
- Claudia Bunce's father, a pioneer Cassiar Country jade miner and founder of Jade City (seasons 1 & 2; season 5)
- Guy Martial
- mine hand, heavy truck/construction equipment operator (season 1 – present)
- Robin, a.k.a. "R-2"
- mine hand, heavy truck/construction equipment operator (season 1 – present), alternate camp medic (season 3)
- Alan Qiao
- first Chinese investor (season 1 – present)
- Gary Wentworth
- mine hand, heavy truck/construction equipment operator, friend of Guy (season 3)
- "Scrappy" Larry
- local scrap metal/used heavy truck/used construction equipment dealer, heavy truck/construction equipment mechanic, heavy truck/construction equipment operator, Bunce family friend (season 2; season 3, episodes 8 & 9; season 5, episode 3 – present)
- Susan
- Scrappy Larry's common-law wife (season 5, episode 3 – present)
- Alex
- Bunce company employee residing in Jade City (season 2; season 3, episode 7)
- Joe, a.k.a. "Jo-Jo"
- Bunce company employee residing in Jade City (season 2; season 3, episode 7; season 5, episodes 3 & 4)
- Karim Kaouar
- Professional pastry chef, Two Mile mine camp cook (season 5 – present)
- Peter Niu
- NEK Mining Inc. company executive (season 3, episodes 1 & 2)
- William
- Beijing-based representative of NEK Mining (season 3, episodes 1 – 6)
- Christina
- Vancouver-based representative of NEK Mining (season 3, episode 3)
- Chris
- geologist, mine hand, Justin's friend (season 3, episodes 5 – 12)
- Henry
- jade miner on a neighbouring claim, Bunce family friend (season 3, episode 6)
- Mike Mee
- engineer, mine hand, venture capital fundraiser, Justin's friend (season 2, episodes 7 – 12)
- gea
List of episodes
Season 1
No. | Title | Original release date |
---|---|---|
1 | "Jade Fever" | March 31, 2015 |
2 | "Got a Rope" | March 31, 2015 |
3 | "The Long March" | April 7, 2015 |
4 | "Slippery Slope" | April 7, 2015 |
5 | "Hide and Seek" | April 14, 2015 |
6 | "No Jade Until Blood is Spilled" | April 14, 2015 |
7 | "The Curse of the Jade" | April 21, 2015 |
8 | "Rude Awakening" | April 21, 2015 |
9 | "Company's Coming" | April 28, 2015 |
10 | "Out of Bounds" | April 28, 2015 |
11 | "Down to the Wire" | May 5, 2015 |
12 | "It Ain't Easy Finding Green" | May 5, 2015 |
Season 2
No. | Title | Original release date |
---|---|---|
1 | "Mountains To Climb" | February 23, 2016 |
2 | "Out in the Cold" | February 23, 2016 |
3 | "500 Bolts" | March 1, 2016 |
4 | "Loaded" | March 1, 2016 |
5 | "An Ounce of Hope" | March 8, 2016 |
6 | "May Jay!" | March 8, 2016 |
7 | "Walk Hard" | March 15, 2016 |
8 | "Big Chunk of Green" | March 15, 2016 |
9 | "Sink, Sank, Sunk" | March 22, 2016 |
10 | "Fractured" | March 22, 2016 |
11 | "The Jade Whisperer" | March 29, 2016 |
12 | "Mystery Rock" | March 29, 2016 |
13 | "Code Brown" | April 5, 2016 |
14 | "The Big One" | April 5, 2016 |
15 | "Jaded" | April 12, 2016 |
16 | "Escape From Wolverine" | April 12, 2016 |
Season 3
No. | Title | Original release date |
---|---|---|
1 | "Hard Climb" | March 7, 2017 |
2 | "Breakdown and Meltdowns" | March 7, 2017 |
3 | "Digging In" | March 15, 2017 |
4 | "Cutting Crew" | March 15, 2017 |
5 | "High Stakes Claim" | March 21, 2017 |
6 | "Eyes on the Prize" | March 21, 2017 |
7 | "Shut Out" | March 28, 2017 |
8 | "Start It Up" | March 28, 2017 |
9 | "Slabs of Jade" | April 4, 2017 |
10 | "Night Moves" | April 4, 2017 |
11 | "The Big Fin" | April 11, 2017 |
12 | "The Bunce Dynasty" | April 11, 2017 |
Season 4
No. | Title | Original release date |
---|---|---|
1 | "Head Start" | March 13, 2018 |
2 | "Hard Core" | March 13, 2018 |
3 | "Tip of the Iceberg" | March 20, 2018 |
4 | "You're My Boy Blue" | March 20, 2018 |
5 | "Uphill Battle" | March 27, 2018 |
6 | "All Slice, No Dice" | March 27, 2018 |
7 | "Slipping Away" | April 3, 2018 |
8 | "Failing Grade" | April 3, 2018 |
9 | "Moving Day" | April 10, 2018 |
10 | "Battered and Bruised" | April 10, 2018 |
11 | "The Curse of Wolverine" | April 17, 2018 |
12 | "Shower Day" | April 17, 2018 |
13 | "Medio-core" | April 24, 2018 |
14 | "We Found Jade" | April 24, 2018 |
Season 5
No. | Title | Original release date |
---|---|---|
1 | "The Long and Grinding Road" | April 8, 2019 |
2 | "Nose for Jade" | April 8, 2019 |
Season 6
No. | Title | Original release date |
---|
Impact on industry
In season 3, the Bunce's hard rock mining operation at the Dynasty claim started to successfully quarry jade – a first in jade mining; which usually rips jade lenses out of rock with heavy equipment instead of quarrying it out like marble.[6]
See also
- Gemstone mining TV shows
- Ice Cold Gold, a cancelled reality TV series featuring gemstone prospecting in Greenland
- Gold Rush (season 4, in Guyana, with placer diamond mining)
- Resource extraction TV shows in Canada
- Yukon Gold, a cancelled reality TV series featuring placer gold mining in northern BC (seasons 1 & 4) and Yukon
References
- Julianna Cummins (5 March 2015). "Discovery Canada polishes "Jade Fever"". Realscreen.
- "Jade Fever (TV Series 2015– )". IMDb.
- "Pilot". Jade Fever. Season 1. Episode 1. 31 March 2015. Discovery Channel Canada.
- Creative BC. "BC Nominees - 2016 Canadian Screen Awards" (PDF).
- Sabrina Furminger (19 January 2016). "Local talent up for 2016 Canadian Screen Awards". Westender. Vancouver Westender.
- "The Big Fin". Jade Fever. 11 April 2017. Discovery Channel Canada.