Prized metal: Huge chunks of metal taken from a Japanese warship that sank in the South China Sea are being pulled by a barge in the open seas. (Inset) A copper plaque from a navy phone circuit onboard British battleship ‘HMS Prince of Wales’ was among the steel stolen from the sunken wreck.
EXCLUSIVE PETALING JAYA: Some Malaysian salvage firms are working with an international syndicate to plunder sunken wartime wrecks in a hunt for rare and highly-sought low-background steel, used in sensitive medical and scientific equipment.
Evidence emerged at an Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology conference in Australia recently, indicating that the syndicate plundered the wrecks of 48 naval ships across South-East Asia, mainly around Malaysia and Indonesia.
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