Jade Fever
Jade Fever is a Canadian documentary television series from Discovery Channel Canada, produced by Omnifilm Entertainment.[1] The series follows a long-standing jade mining family as they explored and placer-mined nephrite jade in the Dease Lake area of Northern British Columbia while also running a small motel and souvenir business in Jade City. Narrated by Martin Strong,[2] the series debuted in April 2015 and focused on the challenges of a small, family-run jade operation.[3] Jade Fever was nominated for a 2016 Canadian Screen Award in the "Best Factual Program or Series" category.[4][5] As of 2021, there have been 7 seasons. The series premiered on The Weather Channel in the US on June 5, 2021. It can also be watched in Germany, France, Sweden, Australia, Russia and in many other territories. In April 2021, Jade Fever became available to stream on CTV.ca.[6] The series was cancelled in July 2021. Prior to its cancellation, Tahltan First Nation claimed the series was being filmed in a mine in Tahltan territory without approval from the nation.[7] However, permits from the Ministry of Energy and Mines had been obtained.[8] In July 2021, Bell Media did not respond to questions of whether the series was pulled off-air owing to pressure from the Tahltan First Nation.[9]
| Jade Fever | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Documentary, reality |
| Created by | David Gullason Jeffrey Kinnon |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | David Gullason Brian Hamilton Gabriela Schonbach Michael Chechik |
| Production locations | Jade City and the Turnagain River basin of British Columbia |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | Discovery Canada |
| Original release | March 31, 2015 – July 19, 2021 |
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
- The matriarch of the Bunce jade mining family and the mine boss bookkeeper (season 1–7).
- Robin Bunce
- The patriarch of the Bunce jade mining family and heavy truck/construction equipment operator (season 1–7).
- Josh Bunce
- Claudia and Robin's youngest son, a mine hand, heavy truck/construction equipment operator (season 1–7), and camp medic (season 3).
- Justin Bunce
- Claudia and Robin's eldest son, a mine hand, prospector, heavy truck/construction equipment operator (season 2; season 7), and jade tabletop maker (season 3).
- Steve Simonovic
- Claudia Bunce's father, a pioneer Cassiar Country jade miner, and founder of Jade City (season 1–2 and season 5–7)
- Guy Martial
- Mine hand, heavy truck/construction equipment operator (season 1–5)
- Robin, a.k.a. "R-2"
- Mine hand, heavy truck/construction equipment operator (season 1–7), and alternate camp medic (season 3).
- Alan Qiao
- First Chinese investor (season 1–2).
- Gary Wentworth
- Mine hand, heavy truck/construction equipment operator, and friend of Guy (season 3–7).
- "Scrappy" Larry
- Local scrap metal/used heavy truck/used construction equipment dealer, heavy truck/construction equipment mechanic, heavy truck/construction equipment operator, and Bunce family friend (season 2–3; season 5–7).
- Susan
- Scrappy Larry's common-law wife (season 5, episode 3–6).
- Alex
- Bunce company employee residing in Jade City (season 2; season 3).
- Joe, a.k.a. "Jo-Jo"
- Bunce company employee residing in Jade City (season 2–3; season 5).
- Karim Kaouar
- Professional pastry chef, Two Mile mine camp cook (season 5–6).
- Peter Niu
- NEK Mining Inc. company executive (season 3).
- William
- Beijing-based representative of NEK Mining (season 3).
- Christina
- Vancouver-based representative of NEK Mining (season 3).
- Chris
- Geologist, mine hand, and Justin's friend (season 3).
- Henry
- Jade miner on a neighbouring claim and Bunce family friend (season 3).
- Mike Mee
- Engineer, mine hand, venture capital fundraiser, and Justin's friend (season 2–3).:
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 |
| 3 | "Bunkhouse Blues" | April 15, 2019 |
| 4 | "Stuck In The Middle | April 15, 2019 |
| 5 | It's My Party | April 22, 2019 |
| 6 | "Who's The Boss?" | April 22, 2019 |
| 7 | "Running On Empty" | April 29, 2019 |
| 8 | "Ridge to Riches" | April 29, 2019 |
| 9 | "Playing With Fire" | May 6, 2019 |
| 10 | "Bunkhouse or Bust" | May 6, 2019 |
| 11 | "Risky Business" | May 13, 2019 |
| 12 | "No Country For Cold Men" | May 13, 2019 |
| 13 | "Snow Job" | May 20, 2019 |
| 14 | "Pushing the Limits" | May 20, 2019 |
Season 6
| No. | Title | Original release date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Big Deal" | March 23, 2020 |
| 2 | "The Last Laugh" | March 23, 2020 |
| 3 | "Down to the Wire" | March 30, 2020 |
| 4 | "Trans Mission" | March 30, 2020 |
| 5 | "Bad Brakes" | April 6, 2020 |
| 6 | "Right Under Our Nose" | April 6, 2020 |
| 7 | "Deal Breaker" | April 13, 2020 |
| 8 | "Deal or No Deal" | April 13, 2020 |
| 9 | "Heavy Lifting" | April 20, 2020 |
| 10 | "Panic Mode" | April 20, 2020 |
| 11 | "Digging In" | April 27, 2020 |
| 12 | "Christmas In August" | April 27, 2020 |
| 13 | "Between A Truck and a .. | May 4, 2020 |
| 14 | "Mutiny On the Mountain" | May 4, 2020 |
Season 7[10]
| No. | Title | Original release date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Keep On Truckin'" | May 10, 2021 |
| 2 | "Young Guy With Semi" | May 17, 2021 |
| 3 | "One Step Forward" | May 24, 2021 |
| 4 | "Of Mud and Men" | May 31, 2021 |
| 5 | "Six Pack O' Trouble" | June 7, 2021 |
| 6 | "Fly By Wire" | June 14, 2021 |
| 7 | "The Little Saw That Couldn't" | June 21, 2021 |
| 8 | "Go Deep" | June 28, 2021 |
| 9 | "Fathers And Sons" | July 5, 2021 |
| 10 | "All That Glitters is Jade" | July 19, 2021 |
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.[11]
Controversy
In 2020 Tahltan First Nation requested the show's mining crew cease operations of their mine as they had not consulted with or sought approvals from Tahltan First Nation to mine within their territory. Tahltan reached out to Bell Media and Omnifilm who develop the program to cease filming.[12][13][14] In May 2021, Bell Media claimed they were unaware of the requests from Tahltan First Nation, but claimed they would investigate into the matter.[7] In May 2021, after request from Tahltan Central Government, the Province of British Columbia put an order to not issue jade mining permits in the region for 2 years.[15]
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)
- Outback Opal Hunters, a reality TV series featuring opal mining in Australia
- 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.
- "Discovery Networks Join CTV's Digital Experience with Smash-Hit Canadian Originals and Iconic Series Now Available on CTV.ca and the CTV App".
- "Popular reality show 'Jade Fever' pulls the plug amidst mining controversy with northwest B.C. First Nation". The Toronto Star. 2021-07-22. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2022-03-16.
- "Jade mining in northwestern B.C. focus of reality show, opposition by Indigenous nation". vancouversun. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
- "Popular reality show 'Jade Fever' pulls the plug amidst mining controversy with northwest B.C. First Nation". The Toronto Star. 2021-07-22. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
- "Jade Fever".
- "The Big Fin". Jade Fever. 11 April 2017. Discovery Channel Canada.
- "Tahltan Nation demands Bell Media cease airing "Jade Fever" and the Province to Suspend all Jade and Placer Mining in Tahltan Territory". nationtalk.ca. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
- "Tahltan Nation Demands Bell Media Cease Airing "Jade Fever" and the Province to Suspend all Jade and Placer Mining in Tahltan Territory" (PDF). Ibehi Summer Newsletter – 2021. Tahltan Central Government. 2021.
- Notice to Cease Jade and Placer Operations, retrieved 2022-03-15
- "Order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council". Province of British Columbia.
External links
- Discover Channel Canada, Jade Fever (official website)
- Jade Fever at IMDb