Gemesis Inc. was a privately held company located in New York City. The company grew synthetic diamonds using proprietary technology.
Gemesis had the world's largest facilities for both the high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond production methods. Using these methods, Gemesis produced high-quality colorless and fancy color diamonds that were offered for sale at 20–30% lower prices than mined natural diamonds of similar quality (and, from some suppliers, lower prices than that). By about 2010, Gemesis was the principal producer of gem quality lab created diamonds and jewelry.
Gemesis started marketing its diamonds by cutting and polishing them and then selling them to jewelry retailers on the wholesale market. In 2012, the company began also selling polished diamonds and diamond jewelry directly to consumers through its website.
The company was founded by Carter Clarke Jr., a retired United States Army brigadier general and son of Carter W. Clarke, beginning as a 30,000-square-foot factory, outside Sarasota, Florida. It was purchased in early 2012 by diamond industry businessman Jatin Mehta. After allegations of impropriety among some of the company's principals arose in 2012, the company was restructured and refounded in 2013 with Mehta's son Suraj Mehta at the helm and with part or all of the company assets transferred to a new company that was still known as "Gemesis". A new CEO was appointed
In the HPHT diamond-growing method that was used by Gemesis, carbon, in graphite form, was placed in a cylindrical "core". A tiny CVD seed diamond was placed at the bottom of the cylinder. The graphite was then subjected to extreme pressure, 850,000 lbf/in² (5.9 GPa) and temperature, for four days. As the diamond was grown, the carbon atoms within the molten metal would crystallize on top of the seed diamond. In Gemesis' process, a yellow gem-quality diamond up to 3 carats (600 mg) in size would grow inside the resolidified metal cylinder. The metal cylinder would then be dissolved in mild acid and the diamond crystal would be extracted.
With the addition or elimination of certain impurities under controlled conditions, diamonds of various color types could be produced. Since nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere, the HPHT process was more likely to produce bright yellow diamonds than any other color (although natural yellow diamonds often have higher value than white diamonds). The yellow tint occurs when approximately five out of each 100,000 carbon atoms in the diamond crystal lattice are replaced with nitrogen atoms.
Available in the purest Type IIa colorless and rare fancy yellow colors, the company's diamonds have identical chemical, optical and physical characteristics as the highest-quality mined diamonds and can also have the same type of cut, color and clarity for gemstone purposes.
Company history
1996–2012
Gemesis was founded in 1996 by Carter Clarke, a retired United States Army brigadier general. In 2006, Stephen D. Lux became its chief executive officer. Lux had substantial prior experience in the diamond industry.
The company announced in November 2010 that it planned to begin offering gemstone-quality colorless diamonds for sale on the internet, and ultimately launched its website to do so in March 2012.
The business was not profitable, partly due to the high cost of developing the diamond production process to a point where sufficient production volume was feasible, and the original investors basically lost their entire investments. Mehta also moved the company's diamond production operations from Florida to Malaysia and made moves designed to legally separate and protect the company's intellectual property. The DTC Diamond Research Center issued an alert and said the undisclosed synthetics were "strikingly similar" in their characteristics to Gemesis diamonds, and a trade journal said the synthetics and Gemesis diamonds had "identical characteristics" and "had the specific Gemesis fingerprint".
The invoices for the diamonds were traced to a company called Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewelry USA in New York that was co-owned by Jatin Mehta, the majority owner of Gemesis, along with a junior partner named Ashok Bhansali.) had taken some steps to sever its ties with its New York subsidiary (although the degree to which the separation had taken effect was unclear). However, Lux later sued the company, alleging that he had not actually resigned but rather had been terminated, and claiming wrongful termination of his employment.
Milestone achievements 2013–2014
Gemesis created the world's largest lab-created diamond in April 2013, broke that record in November 2013, and then broke the record again in July 2014. The first was a 1.29 carat emerald cut, the second was a princess cut at 1.78 carat, and the third was a 3 carat round brilliant white Type IIa diamond.
Rebranding in 2014
In June 2014, Gemesis named a new CEO, Lisa Bissell, and re-branded itself as "Pure Grown Diamonds". At the time, Bissell said "The new name reinforces our commitment to disclosure and transparency." The company's 2014 press releases referred to the company as having been founded in 2013, although Gemesis had been in existence since 1996.