russian ship with 700 tonnes of gold ore disappears

[Large Sarge]

http://m.yahoo.com/w/legobpengine/news/russian-ship-700-tons-gold-ore-missing-120438836--finance.html?orig_host_hdr=news.yahoo.com&.intl=US&.lang=en-US&.tsrc=yahoo

[osoab]

One big boating accident.

[beefsteak]

Recall reading earlier about how bad the infrastructure was in Russia, especially the RR infrastructure.

For discussions' sake, let's say 700T at .5opt, that's 350t/o @ cost of $600pto to refine. This means there
is (only potentially) 1/3 mil $ FINAL value in that "lost" shipment. As raw ore, it's only worth $70K for the whole load. Seems rather risk foolish to not fix a strip of RR track between 2 points for the 1/3mil potential NI they've now lost or been hijacked.

And then there's the cost in human lives vs. a dab of diesel on parallel steel?

Where are the Russian keyhole satellites when they need'em?

[Neuro]

The gold was worth about $800k


Businessweek reports the incident is unlikely to result in serious financial damage to Polymetal: "Based on Polymetal’s earlier estimate for the Avlayakan deposit, the lost cargo contained gold worth an estimated $800,000".

[freespirit]

kinda sounds like an insurance scam...pay $70,000 for the raw ore, then claim the $800,000 as a loss.

[Neuro]

kinda sounds like an insurance scam...pay $70,000 for the raw ore, then claim the $800,000 as a loss.
As I understand it Businessweek calculated the worth of the gold, on previous reported ore grades, from the mine. I am not sure there are insurances in Russia, for these kind of losses...

[Gaillo]

kinda sounds like an insurance scam...pay $70,000 for the raw ore, then claim the $800,000 as a loss.

Jewish lightning? ;)

[Horn]

Jewish lightning? ;)

Dude, there ain't no smiles for jewish lightning, its like the scourge of the ethereal world.

You are familiar with the ethereal, aren't you?

[Large Sarge]

kinda sounds like an insurance scam...pay $70,000 for the raw ore, then claim the $800,000 as a loss.

I agree

maybe the ore was really low grade, and they overvalued it for shipping/insurance purposes, put it on the oldest, crappiest ship in the fleet, and sunk it....

[beefsteak]

As I understand it Businessweek calculated the worth of the gold, on previous reported ore grades, from the mine. I am not sure there are insurances in Russia, for these kind of losses...

And THAT is another reason why I used the estimated value per ton raw ore...I stated I based it upon an ore grade of .5opt That's a pretty decent grade!!!

Carlin Trend Nevada ore runs .001 to .003 opt for comparisons.

When prices are high, low grade ore is mined. In low price climate, high grade ore is mined. Tis the nature of the business. I felt like .5opt was a fair estimate, even for Russian ore, never having seen the ore grades like Biz Week is claiming. Besides, when was the last time anyone believed ANY statistic (pick a topic) coming out of the mouths of the Ruskies, I ask you? ? ? LOL

[freespirit]

I agree

maybe the ore was really low grade, and they overvalued it for shipping/insurance purposes, put it on the oldest, crappiest ship in the fleet, and sunk it....

...and years from now, they'll make a big stink about finding the wreck and the ore, then spend a small fortune salvaging it from the depths. something like the ship load of silver that was recently brought up...

[Neuro]

And THAT is another reason why I used the estimated value per ton raw ore...I stated I based it upon an ore grade of .5opt That's a pretty decent grade!!!

Carlin Trend Nevada ore runs .001 to .003 opt for comparisons.

When prices are high, low grade ore is mined. In low price climate, high grade ore is mined. Tis the nature of the business. I felt like .5opt was a fair estimate, even for Russian ore, never having seen the ore grades like Biz Week is claiming. Besides, when was the last time anyone believed ANY statistic (pick a topic) coming out of the mouths of the Ruskies, I ask you? ? ? LOL
Well, I have really no way of knowing either way what the ore grade was. But nowadays I would trust Russian Statistics over American Stats in general. But who knows, anyway apparently the ore grade was good enough to put it on a boat and ship it to a smelter. Businessweek makes two claims; 1) that this was high grade ore 2)That this was not a major loss for Polymetal at $800.000, suggesting they didn't have the cargo insured...
If both these claims are correct, I don't see any reason to suspect insurance fraud. Boats loaded with Ore may sink in storms...

[Neuro]

Besides I get a gold value of $800.000 would correspond to less than 0.7 Oz/ton... Giving 490 t.oz. at a load of 700 tons.

[freespirit]

Don't get too hung up on the word insurance. It was the phrase that came to mind is all.
More like writing down a loss of profit...