Amurskaya Found: Russian Ship Carrying Tons Of Gold Ore Found Off Pacific Coast

Russian scuba divers have found the wreck of the Amurskaya, a Russian cargo ship what was lost at sea while carrying 700 tons of gold ore owned by Polymetal, according to the nation’s transport ministry.

The Amurskaya, a dry-cargo freighter, was carrying a load of gold ore worth an estimated $230,000 when it went missing in late October in the Okhotsk sea, reports Reuters.

The Transport Ministry cited state lifeguard services as saying:

“Scuba divers investigated the sunken object — it is the Amurskaya freighter. We plan to continue work by penetrating inside the vessel.”

The ship is owned by a company based in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur. It left port at the Kiran Sea terminal on October 28 carrying ore from Polymetal’s Avlayakan mine to its Hakanja processing plant on a familiar shipping route. It sent a radio distress call from the Sea of Okhotsk but had not been heard from since.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek notes that the ship’s crew of 11 remains missing. The wrecked ship was found in about 82 feet (25 meters) of water, where experts believe it sank after its cargo was displaced by the rolling, high seas. The ministry statement explained:

“A ladder, the lack of people on the bridge, the open door to the room below the bridge deck and the lack of lifeboats on board confirms with a high likelihood that the crew attempted an emergency evacuation.”

No radio distress signal has been reported by the crew and no lifeboats have been spotted, making what happened to the crew members an ongoing mystery.

Meanwhile, the Amurskaya’s owner, who is also the director of the Nikolaevsk-on-Amur port, is under criminal investigation for reportedly telling the ship to set sale despite bad weather and improper cargo procedures.

Officials will continue investigating the wreck of the Amurskaya and searching for her missing crew members.