Civil War steamer that sank in 1865 may hold treasure worth $120 million

A 12-year search for sunken gold bore its first fruit Friday, as a marine exploration company reported finding the first cache of gold coins amid the wreckage of a side-wheel steamer that sank off the Georgia coast in 1865.

Officials with Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa believe the coins are part of a cargo of thousands of $20 gold pieces that the SS Republic was carrying from New York to New Orleans for Reconstruction of the South in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Odyssey officials said that, so far, they have found about 80 loose coins and two wooden crates containing unknown quantities of coins in the wreckage they discovered in August, after a search spanning more than 1,500 square miles of open ocean. That's only a small fraction of the gold the ship reportedly was carrying when it sank during a hurricane in October 1865, 100 miles southeast of Savannah.
 
 

U.S. forces find suspected gold cache in Iraq

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the second time in a week, U.S. troops have discovered what appears to be a cache of gold bars hidden in a truck, which could be worth just less than a quarter of a billion dollars, according to a Pentagon official.

Soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade discovered 999 gold bars hidden in a truck during a routine traffic inspection near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk within the last two days, Pentagon officials said.

If it is in fact gold, its estimated value is thought to be close to $250 million.

On Friday, U.S. troops inspecting vehicles near the border with Syria found a truck with more than 1,100 gold bars estimated to be worth just more than a quarter of a billion dollars.

The driver and passenger said they had been paid $350 to pick up the truck in Baghdad and drive it to the Iraqi town of Qaim near the Syrian border, along a well-known smuggling route.

The bars and the men are in the custody of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Pentagon officials said the gold will be kept safe by U.S. forces until an Iraqi government is set up and decides how to use it.
 

Officials: Iraq gold may be worth half a billion

WASHINGTON (AP) -- At a roadblock in Iraq, American troops confiscated what they believe may be gold bars worth up to $500 million, defense officials said Friday.

A truck carrying some 2,000 bars was stopped by soldiers of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at a military checkpoint near Qaim, a northwestern city near Iraq's border with Syria, said U.S. Central Command.

The bars still must be tested to make sure they are gold, Central command said in a statement.

Two people were taken into custody, but it was unclear who they were, their nationality, and where they got the bars.

"The occupants told the soldiers that they had been paid a total of 350,000 dinars (or $350 U.S.) to pick up the truck in Baghdad and drive it to an unnamed individual in Al Qaim," U.S. Central Command said. "The two had been told that the bars were bronze."

Soldiers conducted a search of their Mercedes truck and discovered approximately 2,000 40-pound, 10-inch-long bars.

The bars may have a total worth of $500 million, depending on karat weight and purity, the statement said.

The truck, bars and two people are currently in the custody of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Gold fever in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is awash with rumours that the government is searching New Ireland province for up to 10 tonnes of gold.

The gold, worth an estimated $375m, is said to have been mined and processed by the Japanese during their occupation of the island in World War II.

When the plane carrying the gold crashed into a mountainside, villagers allegedly stashed it in a cave.

It is not the first time rumours of a Japanese gold stash have surfaced in Papua New Guinea. There are also claims of gold in the depths of a bay, based on a story that a submarine carrying some of the trove sank there after an American plane bombed it.

The latest rumous gathered pace two weeks ago, when a man reported finding rotting crates of bullion in the mountains.

The story eventually reached the government's ears and the Papua New Guinea cabinet is said to have excitedly sent defence forces and police - including helicopters and divers - to try to confirm and secure it.

The government itself is saying the story is mere "speculation".

In near future the Ministry of Nature will announce the competition for the largest Eurasian virgin gold and ore field "SUHOY LOG"

Story Filed: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 7:29 PM EST

ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIA. Among the potential customers are Canadian Barrick Gold and Placer Dome, the international Rio Tinto, and Lanta-bank as well. The reserves of "Suhoy Log" are 1,100 tons of gold. The presence of platinum, palladium and rhodium present in the ore found in this field.
 

Local individual stock investors are indiscriminately flocking to gold-claiming shares lately, prompting market experts and brokerages to caution against tragic losses.

Following unconfirmed news reports Thursday that Hyundai Corp. found gold mines containing 300,000 tons of gold reserves in the African nation of Mali, the Hyundai Group trading arm's stocks rose by its daily limit for the second consecutive day to 1,525 won.

Hyundai Corp. stock had crashed to below 1,000 won in recent months in the aftermath of its parent group's worsening liquidity shortage problems. But the standby buying orders for Hyundai Corp. topped 100 million shares in the Korea Stock Exchange in the morning.

Shares of Young Poong Mining & Construction and LG International, which are alleged to have participated in Hyundai Corp.'s gold mine project as partners, also skyrocketed.

Earlier, Dong Ah Industrial Construction Co.'s shares surged by over 10-fold to over 3,265 won by Thursday in the wake of Dec. 5 reports that the bankrupt contractor sponsored a project that discovered a sunken Russian ship carrying 150 trillion won ($124 billion) gold shipment off Korea's eastern coast. As skepticism rises over Dong Ah's gold claims, however, its stock started to fall by the daily limit yesterday.

Analysts say that a "get-rich-quick psychology" among the retail stock investors, devastated by last year's crash of the technology-heavy Kosdaq market, seems to be behind the rampant speculative buying of the gold stocks.

The speculative individuals, who clearly remember the bubble days of the Kosdaq market early last year, are not satisfied with below-10 percent or lower returns expected from the Korea Stock Exchange, rushing to strike it extremely rich instantly from a 'gold' stock, said the analysts.

"The gold claims by Hyundai Corp. appear to have been excessively exaggerated to suit the strike-it-rich dreams of retail investors," said Kim Kyong-shin, a director at Regent Securities. "The speculators' target has just changed from the unconfirmed business potentials of venture start-ups to gold ship or mine," he said, explaining that the fundamental symptoms are similar.

The Daishin Securities also warned in a report that it will take at least two to three years for Hyundai Corp. to materialize its profits from the alleged gold mine, even if it really exists.

"Every details regarding the alleged Hyundai gold mine, such as the exact reserves, metal quality and purity, exploitation expenses and commercial values, remain clouded, despite the investor madness," said the Daishin report.

Even Hyundai Securities, a sister company to Hyundai Corp., showed skeptical reaction, saying that retail investors should be more careful about buying the gold shares.

Reflecting the vague aspect of the gold claims, the estimated amount of gold reserves in the Mali mine widely varied from 30 tons to 300,000 tons. Hyundai Corp. spokesmen themselves said that the exact reserves might not be revealed in six months.

In another ironic incident, the stock of Hyundai Merchant Marine, a Hyundai Group unit, which is pronounced "Hyundai Sangson (in Korean)," similar to Hyundai Corp. (Hyundai Sangsa), skyrocketed at the Seoul bourse, as a local broadcasting reporter mistakenly mentioned Hyundai Merchant as the discoverer of the Mali gold mine.

By Yoo Cheong-mo Staff reporter
2001.01.06

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That the bankrupt contractor sponsored a project that discovered a sunken Russian ship carrying 150 trillion won ($124 billion) gold shipment off Korea's eastern coast. Let's see, $US124 billion is about 460 million ounces of gold, more than the US holds, 50% of worldwide central bank holdings, and 10% of all gold ever mined. Sounds improbable. When one consider less than 2 billion ounces had been mined when the ship sunk - it's an impossible claim !

Giant nugget may be world's richest trove
By Charles W. Petit

A crater in an undersea volcano near Japan may be the biggest pot of precious metals ever found, holding gold and silver each worth around $2 billion. Its treasure is a 30-acre lump of minerals, as broad as the Pentagon building and 100 feet high, that is still growing as mineral-rich, scalding-hot water spews from a profusion of chimneylike vents.

Finding the monster nugget "is the most exciting thing I've ever been associated with," says volcanologist Richard Fiske of the Smithsonian Institution, who worked with the Japanese-led research team that announced the find in last week's Science. They spotted it through the portholes of a three-person research submarine, the Shinkai 2000, in water 4,000 feet deep in an active volcanic region about 250 miles south of Tokyo. It comes as interest is heating up in deep-sea mining worldwide.

Initial sampling of the Japanese discovery puts the gold content at 20 grams per ton, 40 times the average for typical deposits on land. It may be the largest gold deposit, by tonnage, ever found. To scientists, the excitement comes from proof that many on-land precious metal deposits are remnants of ancient, uplifted volcanoes that exploded beneath the sea. The caldera is in Japan's exclusive economic zone, giving that mineral-poor nation full right to exploit it.