Man-Made Diamonds

Reported February 2007

SARASOTA, Fla. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Diamonds. They're the symbol of love ... Romance and weddings. But you don't have to get a little blue Tiffany & Co. box to get one. A small white box is the key to making a diamond. It's in machines in Sarasota, Fla., where real diamonds are grown by man.

Clark McEwen, chief operating officer of The Gemesis Corporation, oversees it all.

"Basically what we do here is we recreate, or emulate, the process that occurs 100 miles below the earth's surface," McEwen tells Ivanhoe.

A core made of graphite, carbon and a diamond seed is strategically placed in the middle of what is essentially a very large pressure cooker. "It's like putting together a large heavy puzzle," Gemesis "Senior Diamond Growth Technician" Chris Owens tells Ivanhoe. "Each one of these anvils weighs about 30 pounds."

Graphite and diamonds are both made from pure carbon atoms. Under extreme heat and pressure, carbon atoms attach themselves to the seed, forming a diamond crystal. McEwen says, "There's about 500 different variables in the process, and if any one of those variables is slightly off, we get a different outcome."

The machine reaches 1,500 degrees, and the pressure on the core is 850,000 pounds per square inch -- that's equivalent to 100 8,000-pound elephants standing on a coin. Once the machine is closed, nature takes over. Four days later a very crushed core is taken out, and a man-made diamond is inside.

"Structurally they're, they're identical. Optically, chemically and physically they're identical to a mine diamond," McEwen says. Gemesis makes yellow- and orange-colored diamonds because fancy colors are in demand.

But diamond-making is not an exact science. Some turn out beautiful. Others, not so good.

McEwen says there is a misconception that every one of the man-made diamonds is perfect. That's not the case. "Just like in nature, each one of these grows individually and has its own unique characteristics," he says. The rough diamonds are then graded and sent out to be made into what many women want for Valentine's Day.

Just to give you an idea on the cost, a one-carat yellow diamond from nature costs about $20,000 and a man-made one costs about $6,000. Also, The Gemesis Corporation has its name inscripted on all of its diamonds so consumers know they are man-made.

The Materials Research Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Britta Schlager
Media Relations
The Gemesis Corporation
Sarasota, FL 34240
(941) 907-9889
bschlager@gemesis.com

Materials Research Society
506 Keystone Drive
Warrendale, PA 15086-7573
(724) 779-3003

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