Russian Ship Carrying 700 Tons Of Gold Ore Missing

A Russian cargo ship carrying nine crew members and 700 tons of gold ore went missing during stormy weather off of Russia’s Pacific Coast.

The ship sent a distress call as it was sailing from Neran on the coast to Feklistov Island on Sunday, reports Yahoo! News. The shipping route is in the Sea of Okhotsk.

The vessel was hired by mining company Polymetal to carry 700 tons of gold ore from one deposit to another, where it was to be processes.

Gold is extracted from gold ore, but it only contains a small percentage of the precious metal. Polymetal’s spokesman refused to comment on Monday on the estimated value of the cargo.

The St. Petersburg-based company released a statement on Monday saying that, “responsibility for the cargo lies with the freight carrier,” notes Bloomberg.

The missing freighter is called Amurskaya and is operated by a company based in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur in Russia.

It disappeared near the Shanta Islands following the distress call. Authorities have deployed aircraft and ships for a search and rescue operation, but it has so far lead to no “negative or positive results,” according to Alexander Khoklov, an official at the port of Nikolayevsk-on-Amur.

Nikolay Sosnovskiy, an analyst at VTB Capital, stated that the incident of the missing Russian ship won’t cause a substantial loss for Polymetal, as the lost cargo will likely cost the company an estimated $800,000.

Polymetal has refused to comment more on the Russian cargo ship, which was carrying 700 tons of gold ore when it went missing.