A king-size agate weighing 40 tons, believed to be the largest of its kind in China, was excavated Monday from a rural area in Fuxin City of northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The agate is 4.7 meters in height, 4.1 meters in width and 1.3 meters in thickness. It is sparklingly bright and crystal clear, said Sun Yupeng, a press officer of Fuxin City.

The gem was discovered last August by Wang Fukun, a farmer at Qijiazi Township of the Fuxin Autonomous county of Mongolia. As it was buried, nobody knew its exact weight. Wang also found a six-ton agate in the area not long ago.

Agate is produced mainly in northeastern Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces and central China's Hubei Province. Fuxin is considered one of the leading agate producers in the country. Currently, 30,000 local residents are engaged in agate processing and transaction, generating 100 million yuan (US$12 million) in pre-tax profit a year.

The local government organized efforts to dig out the huge gem, but the government will find it hard to transport such a big agate out of the region as the road is rough.

(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2004)