A MEDICAL doctor who led a team to salvage suspected “gold bars” from a sunken ship in the Malaita Outer Islands wanted those wrecks back.
Dr Reginald Aipia broke his silence on Wednesday after experts from the Ministry of Mines and Energy revealed the suspected treasure were not gold as earlier speculated.
“I have my doubts that the wrecks were not gold, but we decided to bring them over to Honiara because we wanted them to be tested,” Dr Aipia told the Solomon Star, Wednesday.
“Now that we know the wrecks were not gold, I am asking authorities to release them back to me so that we can sell them to scrap metal dealers,” he added.
“$20 per kilo for scrap metal is money so we want the metals back.”
Dr Aipia and his boys salvaged more than 70 suspected gold bars from a ship believed to have sunk off Ontong Java in the late 1800s.
They used modern diving gear to get the wrecks up from the deep ocean.
Dr Aipia said it was exhausting to get those objects above water, considering the depth of the ocean, the massive weight of those objects and the struggle to remove piled of sands that covered the wreckage.
He said it would therefore appropriate that the products be returned to him for further assessment.
A senior official from the Ministry of Mines and Energy who inspected the suspected gold bars, which were stored at the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, said by just by looking at the physical appearance of the products, one can tell they are not gold or mineral of any value.
“They were just mixture of iron, which we believed were used in ships during those days to balance the vessel,” the officer said.
Dr Aipia and his boys arrived with the products in Honiara last Friday.
They were later removed by the police to the Central Bank on the belief the wrecks were gold bars.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare reportedly went and inspected the products at the Central Bank.
By AATAI JOHN
