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Subscribe to RSSMOSCOW -- A vessel with a nine-person crew and 700 tons of gold ore onboard went missing in stormy seas off Russia's Pacific Coast.
The ship sent a distress call on Sunday as it was sailing from the coastal town of Neran to Feklistov Island in the Sea of Okhotsk, The Associated Press reported.
The vessel, hired by mining company Polymetal, was carrying 700 tons of gold ore from one deposit to another where it was to be processed. Gold ore is the material from which gold is extracted and contains only a small percentage of the precious metal.
Polymetal's spokesman on Monday would not estimate the value of the cargo.
The company said it has shipped ore via that route before, and there was nothing unusual in shipping it by the sea, AP said.
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Leave a Comment:
"Gold ore is the material from which gold is extracted..."
Thank god we got that straight. I thought you got brass from gold ore. What was I thinking?
Not only that, but the article says they were taking the ore from one deposit to another. Good thing they said it was for processing. I might have thought they were going to re-bury it.
Listen closely, It's Gordon Lightfoot singing the Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald in Russian.
Sounds like an insurance scam to me...but I'm somewhat jaded.
Dirt. 700 tons of ...dirt.
In Russia, insurance scams you!
If it had been yellowcake, I would have suggested checking with Israel.
In the US the insurance corporations scams you: President Obama, Face the Nation, September 20, 2009. Insurance Corporations that (mis)manage Medicare Overcharge US Taxpayers 14% to make profits of $17 Billion to $18 Billion per year (and no ACA did not fix that Fraud Against US Citizens). Just one more reasons to get the Insurance Corporations out of the Medical Profession, so the cost of Medical Treatments decrease by 80% and US Citizens pay $50 for unlimited Medical Treatments; as a REAL Universal Health Care For All US Citizens.
This article sucks, does not state the name of the Ship, Tonage, Point of Departure, the Route and Destination.
So why is gold more valuable than brass anyways? Brass has more usage than gold. The only thing gold is better at is conducting electricity.
@David: In case you're unaware: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Russian_reversal_(joke)
As for the rest, yeah, it's cute you really believe that government intervention has ever made anything cheaper for us. But great off-topic comment!
It's more rare and prettier.
Explain what that link has to do with anything. Other than having some sort of virus, adware, or something.
President FDR's Universal Health Care For All US Citizens managed by the US Government (Not the Insurance Corporations) worked prior to, during, and after WWII until the Insurance Corporations Lobbyed (Bribed) the US Politicians to get themselves back in.
I didn't bring up "Insurance" first, just commented.
David,
Major fail trying to make this a political thread - not once, but twice.
@David: I assumed that since you were responding to me that it was about my "In Russia, insurance scams you!" comment. The link explains the cultural reference in case you were/are unaware of it.
Um... care to source that?
I'm not sure where you might have heard of that, because there was never any such thing. In 1933, FDR asked for health care to be included in Social Security, but in never got beyond the planning stage and was dead by 1935, mostly due to AMA hostility. He DID call again for universal health care in 1944, but of course died in office before anything happened.
If it did exist I'd be shocked as it wasn't mentioned in any of the three FDR biographies I've read and I've rarely heard of a government benefit program that got killed for any reason.
But, for what it's worth, it was TEDDY Roosevelt who was the big universal health care guy. Are you talking about him?
I was talking about shipping insurance, playing off of JohnBrowning's post. You know: gold shipment missing?
Same terms apply in USA! (you gotta read that small print...)
Aliens
You guys are killing me. Thanks, I needed the chuckle.
Not that NBCNEWS.COM doesn't provide plenty of material for humor.
It's good to see they are still hiring the mentally challenged.
Gold has a variety of industrial uses, in computers, in dentistry... and it is rarer than either zinc or copper, the two ingrediants in brass.
Brass...?
Is good for door nobs, I know, and for rust-free items like diving helmets.
relative worth? Hard to say.
"So why is gold more valuable than brass anyways? Brass has more usage than gold. The only thing gold is better at is conducting electricity."
Gold never deteriorates-ever. Every ounce of gold that ever existed still exists.
Okay, I admit it, I got the gold. I brought it to my dentist so he can fit me with a new grill.
David-475776 - Please lighten up.
The story is about a gold ore shipment, and a Russian gold ore shipment at that; Russia being perhaps the one country every is sure was not Obama's secret birth place. This is something that means very little to anybody reading this thread, and something which even fewer readers could put to use.
Smile. It's not your gold ore, and it won't be your insurance premiums which pay for it, not even your health care premiums.
David, why not take mimi jaques and Jonathan for a ride back to your Afghan mountaintop and watch the Taliban. You can even be in charge of AFRCENFORSCAMAGENIMD.
gold is an element. brass is a mixture.
I agree with Sgation. The aliens took it. Crew too.
Looks like from now on we're going to have to arm our gold ore ships with some special weaponry that can take out alien spacecraft. Or maybe someone can make a computer virus that will make all their ships self-destruct.
"He sees men come, he sees men go,
Crawling like ants on the rocks below
The men will steal, the men will dream
And die for gold onthe rocks below
Gold, Gold, Gold, they just gotta have that gold
Gold, Gold, Gold, they'll do anything for gold..."
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Small ship compared to the Edmund Fitzgerald, and this was out in the open ocean. Not much of a mystery there. The rough seas damaged the vessel and it sank. No survivors and the vessel will probably never be found due to the rough conditions in the seas in that part of the world. Also, to put this in perspective, most gold ore produces about one ounce of gold per 100 tons, so the total gold lost in this episode was about 7 to 10 ounces. Too bad about the loss of life and the vessel, however. Everybody has to make a living somehow.
7-10 ounces? Then why would they run the expense (and risk) of shipping it? Must have been more than that. If there is anything shady about this we'll probably never know the truth.
Duh, has anyone questioned the "Capital one" Tv commercial Pirates? They havent done a commercial in a while...wonder where they could be?...hmm
The ore tonnage to pure oz figure just cannot be right...
Article did not mention Tonage. You cannot estimate size of ship anymore based on size of crew, as even modern supertankers and modern container ships have small crews.
Depends on Density (Ore grade).
The number is more like one ounce per ton if it is decent grade ore. At the rate @mathuin suggested it would not even make sense to mine the ore, let alone ship it somewhere else for processing.
@Doc Holliday, they aren't pirates. They're Vikings. Big difference.
It's actually about and ounce of gold in 6 tons of ore. 7 ounces of gold wouldn't even cover the cost of the crew transporting the ore.
Years ago I worked for a private mine lab and most mining companies would start looking at the possibility of an area being considered for mining at 0.02 to 0.03 ounces per ton. There is more to this though as some ore is harder to extract gold from so they have to take it through different processes which can add to the cost. I knew one mine that had some ore that was high in sulfur so they were transporting it over 150 miles to another mine to be processed as it was cheaper for them to do this than build a plant to process the ore.
I worked for a mining company for 14 yrs. I'll bet the ore on the ship
is 1 oz/ton, making the shipment 700 oz
For some reason I see a crappy tv show with people with crappy boats, crappy equipment and fake crappy drama looking for gold in the Sea of Okhotsk.
But, they won't have to hire actors for premium salaries...Do it on the cheap! Is that Hollywoods version of the junk bond?
Check Putin's backyard.
Ask Sara Palin - I'm sure she saw it from her back yard.
How about the rumored US "Black ships" and actual US "Black Sites", one Black Site was President Gaddaffi's Prisons that some of President Obama's Guantanamo Prisoners were transfered to and after the Overthrow by President Obama, the Islamic Jihadists were released of course by the other Islamic Jihadists supported by President Obama (BBC News Article).
As a conservative, I have to say there is no way Gumps could have passed that up. If you are going to tee it up, then he has to hit it.
Just think we are going to get Ryan instead of Palin, I feel good about that.
Also, I hate people's comments being collapsed unless they are vulgar, bigoted or racists.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, 9 former Russian sailors are living a good, quiet life of strong drinks and waxed bikini lines.
Deleted
A mystery? Uh yeah, I don't think so.
If I were the Captain and I knew what was on board...
Hey, just saying
Yeah, all he would have to do is get a processing plant to extract the gold.
Didn't you know. Mystery is key word for "cover up".
sooooooo this shipment wasn't like pirates '' booty '' watch stuff ???
if somalian pirates have it they have 700 tons of dirt.
700 tons is very small for a freighter. Old coastal vessels are usually larger. 10 Oz of gold = $17,000.00, minus the processing cost, not worth paying a ship and its crew much to transport it, unless it was partially processed, making it much more valuable. (No life in Rio for the crew for just 17K.)
Ok so wait, just so I understand the numbers here:
10 Oz of gold = $17,000.00
There are 3200 Oz's in a 1 ton.
3200 x 700 = 2240000 ounces
2240000 x 17000 = $38,080,000,000.00
That can't be right can it? There has to be something I am missing here...
No it is not right. You missed the title of the article which states "700 tons of gold ORE" Ore is not refined gold. I did some "internet" research and what i read indicated the grade of affects how much gold is actually in the rock. An average is about 5 grams per ton.
At that rate.. 700 tons x 5 grams = 3500 grams / 30 grams per troy ounce = 116 oz of pure gold. Multiply that times a rough market price of $2000 per troy oz is only $233,333.
Definitely enough to be worth hauling but hardly enough for the conspiracy theory. Even if the grade was double or triple the average you are just getting close to $1 million bucks. Rough seas, bad weather, lots of dirt = sunk ship.
Someone had stated above that the average yield of gold is 1 oz per 100 tons of ore, giving the ship a total of 7-10 oz of gold. (That seems somewhat low, as there is a higher yield of gold in the copper mines in Arizona and they throw it away, but I am not an expert in gold ore.)
(there are 32000 oz in a ton. I think you accidentally dropped a "0")
Chris @Memphis - Ok I knew I was missing something. Thanks for the clarification. Don't know much about gold. My wife does... which is why I don't :)
That is the amount of Gold Ore as Cargo, not the Tonnage of the Vessel.
Not to start a conspiracy theory; but, this would tend to make people wonder what else the ship was transporting or doing. example: The previous USSR "Fishing Trawlers" (with all the antennas), as USSR Spy Ships, someone else mentioned "Black Ships" for Putin's "Why, is that where he keeps the bodies of political opponents and dissidents ?".
Value of the ore varies widely by mine/company. See
http://www.goldminerpulse.com/gold-chart-ore-value.php
Based on an AVERAGE value on 10/26/2012 the 700 tons would be worth $39,158 in actual gold. But this could be a rich-ore mine with a per-ton value of upwards of $500 for a value of $350,000
Someone elsewhere mentions rare earths, and indeed if there was hope of extracting them then the value goes waaaaay up at the per gram value. The worlds largest producer (with almost a monopoly) of rare earths? China.
@David - Freighters are rated by how much they can carry, not the total weight of the ship, but it is true the ship could have had other cargo and been larger.
So... this is basically a non-news article.
Except Birthers are suspected of being responsible.
Mine!!
I saw them sailors celebrating the Giant winning the World Series Championship in San Francisco last night!
alien abduction....
Someone ask Sarah Palin if she saw the ship while she was looking for "Poootin".
This is one of the worst news articles written. How'd it ever get posted!
Cause the only real news out today is Sandy and Benghazi and MSN isn't going to talk about the second one.
Pirates or mutiny?!!! Small crew, probably decided to keep it for themselves and process it themselves. Gibbs and his team can easily solve this one - LOL!!!!!!
Because processing gold out of ore is a DIY project. Sure it is.
Goldmember got it. Or the Iranians because it was radioactive gold ore.
Gorbachev's fault
Most will not get the joke.
Russians discover Gilligan's Island, which is a lot more fun than the island in Lost.
Crusty Ginger or MaryAnn, OR 12 Russian sailors....i'd still go with the girls.
Let's put it in perspective...
699 tons of dirt, 1 ton of gold...
1 ton of gold = 32,000 ounces
32,000 ounces * $1,700 / oz = $54 million dollars... ;-)
Russian gold is usually co-mingled with copper. I'm sure that helps the values too.
What mystery?
They were in a storm and sent a distress call. Can you say damage to the ship and it sank?
Funny how a Russian freighter full of horse manure didn't get lost at sea. Just the one full of gold ore. What a coincidence. Kinda like how the trucks full of lollipops or bags of money never tip over on the interstates....just the ones with hazardous waste.
noticed every one missed the boat(ship) as usual Whats called gold ore by all current mining corp. at the moment is actually being precessed for rare earths required for all high tech manufacture (cell phones o missels) sells by the gram not the ounce worth about 400 times more than gold, and we are fighting middle east wars in 3 places to control for the u.s.a. wake up
WHAT!!!! The above paragraph made almost no sense whatsoever. I believe anyone trying to read or comprehend that nonsense will have their I.Q. drop by at least 20 points. As I do not have the I.Q. points to spare, please stop posting until you learn to spell, capitalize and punctuate correctly. I must now go to the medicine cabinet for Tylenol, as trying to read your banter has given me a migraine.
And by the way, the Mideast gold is not a rare Earth mineral, it is OIL, also known as Black gold or Texas Tea.
read #24