But the company has achieved this only after great pain: It had to downsize at Lakewood Ranch after a huge expansion effort that collided with a global recession.

The company, which has now moved a large portion of its production to Malaysia, is creating quantities of the white diamonds in preparation for an ambitious marketing push to begin later this summer, chief executive Stephen Lux says.

Asian markets also are the key to understanding the continuing strong demand for diamonds. Markets in China and India have grown so much that they accounted for 20 percent of global consumer demand for diamond jewelry last year, compared with 12 percent two years earlier, according to Mumbai-based CRISIL, which provides credit ratings for diamond merchants.

Being able to market white stones in quantity “will greatly change things,” says Lux, who is trying to veil as much of Gemesis’ plans as possible while preparing for a high-volume future.

The stones are mostly graded H in color and VS in clarity, which means nearly colorless and nearly flawless, he says.

Lux confirmed that the white stones already are available, but a consumer would not know that from the company website, which indicates only that, “A new Gemesis is coming. Luxury evolves in 2011.”

“If people call us on an individual basis, we will sell them a white stone,” Lux says. “We haven’t kicked off the active consumer marketing campaign yet. It is just premature.”

Over the years, Gemesis has also convinced the Gemological Institute of America to provide its grading services for the stones, while certifying them as lab-made to distinguish them from mined diamonds.

The prices Gemesis can get for its faceted stones are geared to be more affordable than similar mined diamonds, but they are not sold at giveaway prices like cubic zirconium stones, which are a diamond substitute rather than a true diamond.

Lux says that “a rough estimate of pricing of colorless diamonds might be 25 percent below mined diamonds, depending on one’s point of purchase.” But because Gemesis stones are priced according to their specific attributes – just like mined diamonds – “there is frequently no simple comparison,” he adds.

Rob Bates, senior editor at the industry trade publication Jewelers Circular Keystone, is one of very few people who have seen bulk quantities of Gemesis’ white diamonds.

“It is still very hard to produce white diamonds as lab-produced diamond,” Bates says. “They are not cheap and they are hard to produce.”

Carter Clarke, a retired Army brigadier general who is still a member of the company’s board of directors, founded Gemesis in 1996 after a trip to Moscow the prior year.

During that trip, someone asked if he wanted to buy a diamond-making machine. He bought three and hired three Russian scientists to perfect their use in Florida.

Gemesis worked with the University of Florida to research and develop its original process.

The company also picked a difficult time to begin its broader expansion, with a 2007 groundbreaking aimed at making its Lakewood Ranch plant big enough for as many as 550 diamond-making machines, plus offices.

The company recently moved its production offshore to Malaysia, and Lux confirms that the company has down-sized its Sarasota operation by moving to smaller quarters within Lakewood Ranch.

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