Tairus
Tairus (Russian: Тайрус, a portmanteau of Тайско (Thai) and Русский (Russian)) a synthetic gemstone manufacturer. The company was a joint venture between the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences located in Akademgorodok and Tairus Co., Ltd. of Bangkok, Thailand. It was formed in 1989 as part of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika initiative to establish business entities to represent the research and development undertaken by the Soviet academic community. Today Tairus is a major supplier of hydrothermally grown gemstones to the jewellery industry. Later, Tairus became a privately held enterprise.
In the beginning, the team was led by the scientist and developer of the hydrothermal process, the late Alexander Lebedev, whose name was kept secret by the Soviet regime for many years. Their objective was to grow and to supply emeralds, rubies, sapphires, alexandrite and other gems to the jewelry industry. The driving force was Academician Nikolai Dobretsov, former President of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (now retired). Joint Venture Tairus has been formed with Tairus (Thailand) Company Ltd., of Bangkok, to manufacture and distribute the gems. Tairus has achieved many scientific breakthroughs. For example, the development of the hydrothermally grown corundum, aquamarine and the development of a revolutionary process of horizontal crystallization for growing Corundum (Ruby), Chrysoberyl and Alexandrite.
After many years of development, scientists at Tairus had succeeded to commercially grow emeralds in a laboratory environment that resemble in color and have gemological properties that “overlap natural emeralds from various localities, especially those of low alkali-bearing stones from Colombia” as referenced in “A new type of Tairus hydrothermally-grown synthetic emerald, colored by vanadium and copper,” Journal of Gemmology of Gemmological Association of Great Britain, September, 2006, by Dr. Karl Schmetzer (1), Dr. Dietmar Schwartz (2), Dr. Heinz-Jurgen Bernhardt (3) and Dr. Tobias Hager (4).
(1) Taubenweg 16, D-85238 Petershausen, Germany
(2) Gübelin Gem Lab, Maihofstr. 102, CH-6006 Lucerne, Switzerland
(3) Central Microprobe Facility, Ruhr-University, D-44780 Bochum, Germany
(4) Institute of Gemstone Research, University of Mainz, D-55099 Mainz, Germany
Chairman of the board: Walter Barshai.
Products
The following are synthetic gemstones that were developed by Tairus scientists; they are alternately referred to as Tairus stones (e.g. "Tairus Ruby").
- Floating Zone Ruby, synthesized in 1991.
- Hydrothermal Ruby, synthesized in 1992 by Alexander Dokukin.
- Hydrothermal Aquamarine, synthesized in 1993.
- Hydrothermal Sapphires, in pink, green, orange, and blue.
- Colombian Color Emerald, developed in 2004.
- Laboratory-grown Diamonds