The company was set up by Ivan Mifsud in 1987, as soon as he returned to Malta after completing his studies in Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Oxford, England.
Initially, the company had various interests which included the Travel, Tourism and Hotel business, however none in the Gem business until 1993.
In 1992, Ivan Mifsud became a member of the Gemmological Association and Gem Testing Laboratory of Great Britain and it was an article in the very first journal of Gemmology that he received on becoming a member (January 1992 Volume 23 No. 1) that sparked off this new area of interest. He was always fascinated by gemstones whether precious or semi-precious and in this journal there was an interesting article about two new gemstone cuts, of which one was the "Maltese Cross Cut". Unfortunately, the article had no contact address and it was after much perseverance that Ivan Mifsud finally managed to make contact with Mr Paul H Paulsen who lives in Canada. From then on the two became not only friends but also business partners with Ivan Mifsud taking care of the distribution of the Maltese Cross Cut gemstones in Europe.
In February 1998, Ivan Mifsud purchased the patent from Paul Paulsen, and now both the patent and distribution centre are in Malta in the centre of the Mediterranean, hence the name MedGem.
MedGem will focus on marketing this new cut on a commercial basis mainly in Europe and especially to those institutions that have associations with the Knights of Malta and those companies that incorporate the famous eight-pointed Maltese Cross in their Insignia. Individual hand-cut stones will be available to artist jewellers, gemstone collectors and to those individuals who wish to have their own jewellery made, whilst calibrated machine cut natural and hydrothermal stones are available for manufacturing jewellers. Sealed memento packs with 8mm diameter "Silver" Topaz are also available for those in the Tourist trade. MedGem has commissioned various sample jewellery pieces from Maltese and Italian jewellers that incorporate the octagonal Maltese Cross Cut Gemstone.
Just a month after the purchase of the patent, MedGem has been appointed as the sole agent for the unique GEM CLIPPER® in the Maltese Islands. This agreement was finalised in Malta with the managing directors Mr Stefan Lohmeyer and Mrs Bettina Zink.
MedGem™ trading name for Oriel Ltd (Tax Reg. No. 1378-8227)
your worldwide direct source of "Maltese Cross cut®" gemstones
