MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rescuers locate vessel that went down in Patagonia with 22 million in gold

Bad weather has prevented C-Sailor form checking if Polar Mist still holds the precious cargo

The Chilean trawler converted into an armoured transport “Polar Mist” and which went down in Patagonian waters with a haul of precious metal has finally been pinpointed on the sea bed some forty kilometres off the coast.

She was located this week by the vessel “C-Sailor” contracted for the rescue. However it was too soon to confirm if the 9.6 tons of gold and silver, estimated in 22 million US dollars, she was carrying were still in the “Polar Mist” hold,

Terrible weather conditions in the area of Cabo Vírgenes in the extreme south of Argentina prevented rescuers from continuing with the operation and sending down a robotic submersible.

“Polar Mist” was carrying the valuable cargo belonging to the Argentine mining companies from Santa Cruz, Cerro Vanguardia and Minera Tritton, when she sunk in mysterious conditions back in January, close to the east access to the Magellan Strait.

A first rescue operation last April failed but now Lloyds contracted the Vuanatu flagged C-Sailor and the Dutch company Maommet.

“Polar Mist” was found almost at the same place that the Chilean tug Beagle that was pulling her, declared she had sunk, according to reports from Rio Gallegos.

“We still don’t have pictures of the vessel but with sonar waves we verified it was the Polar Mist; that is why we confirmed her discovery”, said a source close to the rescue operation.

But the most important task is yet to be confirmed: that the gold and silver are still with the Polar Mist.

According to the rescuers plan the first phase was to determine where she had gone down and check the existence of the metal bars with the robotic submersible. Further on professional divers would be called in to work at estimated 40 to 50 metres depth.

C-Sailor is back in Rio Gallegos and will be returning to the position once weather conditions improve. She carries staff from the Dutch rescue company, their Argentine counterparts and personnel from the Argentine Coast Guard.

Polar Mist regularly transported gold and silver from Rio Gallegos to Punta Arenas where the metals were flown to Santiago and then to Switzerland.