After 15 years, Gemesis Corporation has announced that it has finally created a one-carat sized white, nearly flawless diamond. Gemesis is the world’s first artificial diamond producer. The company has achieved this artificial diamond feat only after enduring massive restructuring and downsizing after a large expansion that coincided with the current global recession.

Gemesis was founded in 1996 after retired general-turned CEO Carter Clarke was offered three diamond-making machines during a trip to Russia. Clarke bought the machines the following year and hired Russian technicians to work with the University of Florida and perfect the process.

When the company revealed its first diamonds to the public in the late 1990s, the diamond industry immediately perceived the threat Gemesis held to the industry, especially since the diamonds were far more perfect than anything produced in nature. The industry promptly ostracized the company, certification organizations such as the GIA refused to certify their diamonds and the important players in Antwerp urged the public not to buy their diamonds, accusing Gemesis of selling fake diamonds. Gemesis’ response was to continue production.

Since that time, Gemesis convinced the GIA to certify its stones as real diamonds, although distinguishing them as lab-made so as to avoid confusion with natural diamonds.

In 2007, the company expanded its Sarasota offices in Lakewood Ranch to be able to house 550 diamond producing machines and offices. When the global recession hit in 2008, the company downsized and moved most of its production to Malaysia.

Production has picked up speed in both the Malaysia and Sarasota facilities as Gemesis is preparing for an ambitious advertising campaign to sell their diamonds in jewelry pieces and as loose diamonds later this year. According to CEO Stephen Lux, the ability to sell such stones would change the industry and that he expects the company’s diamonds will be in high demand.

When asked for details regarding the stones, Lux said the most recent diamonds are ‘H’ in color and VS in clarity, meaning they are nearly colorless and flawless. He did not provide any other details other than that their colorless diamonds would be about 25 percent less than a mined diamond and that they are already for sale on an individual basis.

The few that have seen the diamonds in mass quantities have verified Lux’s statements, adding that the correct price should be somewhere in between that of Cubic Zirconia and a mined diamond.