Robin Crusso Island

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I saw in the new recently that $10 billion of boulin was found on Robinson Crusso Island and was wondering if anyone had anything new as to what was happening with the recovery of the gold and all that.

Cheers

 

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600 barrels of loot found on Crusoe island

Jonathan Franklin in Santiago
Monday September 26, 2005
The Guardian


The archipelago is named after Robinson Crusoe, but perhaps it should have been called Treasure Island.
A long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island.

"The biggest treasure in history has been located," said Fernando Uribe-Etxeverria, a lawyer for Wagner, the Chilean company leading the search. Mr Uribe-Etxeverria estimated the value of the buried treasure at US$10bn (?5.6bn).


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The announcement set off ownership claims. The treasure hunters claimed half the loot was theirs and said they would donate it to non-profit-making organisations. The government said that they had no share to donate.
It also prompted speculation about the contents of what is considered to be one of the great lost treasures from the Spanish looting of South America. Chilean newspapers were filled with reports that the stash includes 10 papal rings and original gold statues from the Incan empire.

The hoard is supposedly buried 15 metres (50ft) deep on Robinson Crusoe island, also known as the Juan Fern?ndez island, home to Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, the adventurer immortalised by Daniel Defoe as Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk was dumped on the island and lived alone for four years before being rescued. His exploits brought worldwide attention to the islands.

For centuries treasure hunters have scoured the island in search of booty which was reportedly buried there in 1715 by Spanish sailor Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverria. Using everything from old Spanish ship manifests to teams of islanders with shovels and picks, foreigners have made so many claims of discovering the lost treasure that islanders are usually sceptical of the proclamations.

This most recent announcement, however, deserves greater credence because of the equipment used by the treasure hunters: a mini robot that can scan 50 metres deep into the earth. The robot, dubbed "Arturito", was invented by Chileans and over the past year has grabbed headlines by breaking some of the country's biggest criminal mysteries.

First, the robot detected the buried arsenal of a rightwing sect known as Colonia Dignidad. The guns and rocket launchers were buried at some 10 metres and while the authorities had searched for years, the robot found the buried weapons almost instantly. Then, in the case of missing businessman Jose Yuraszeck, Arturito was able to analyse the soil and identify the molecular composition of human bones, allowing investigators to dig straight to the body of the murder victim.

 

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ROBOT DISCOVERS GOLD ON CHILE?S ROBINSON CRUSOE ISLAND

Government Says Treasure Must Stay In State Hands

(Sept. 27, 2005) Legends of buried treasure, pirates and fortune hunters have always surrounded Chile?s Robinson Crusoe Island, but now it seems that the tall tales may actually prove true.

Last Wednesday a team from Wagner Technologies announced to the world that they had discovered 800 metric tons of gold, silver, and jewels on Robinson Crusoe Island, one of a tiny group of islands in the Juan Fern?ndez archipelago, located 645 km off the coast of Chile. The astonished explorers claim that the booty is the long-lost treasure of Spanish Conquistador Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverr?a, worth over US$10 billion.

The team used new robot technology that is able to scan the atomic composition of materials such as water, metals and petroleum buried up to 50 meters underground. Because the robot uses sonar to scan the ground, no digging has actually been done yet, but if the team is right, the discovery would be the largest buried treasure ever found anywhere.

According to legend, the treasure originated in the Incan Empire and was stolen during the Spanish conquest of Peru in the 16th and 17th centuries. When the treasure was en route to Spain around 1715, the navigator in charge of the ship landed on Robinson Crusoe Island and buried his cargo. Before he could return to unearth the booty, an English pirate named Cornelius Webb uncovered the Incan treasure and reburied it elsewhere on the island.

What became of the fortune afterwards has been the focus of speculation and myth that has survived on the island for over 300 years. Since 1998, the American millionaire Bernard Keiser has been excavating caves all over the island in search of the hidden loot. He has invested over US$1 million in the hunt, but has never been able to find the ?X? that marks the spot.

But ?Arturito,? the little robot named after Star Wars character R2 D2, took only moments to locate the buried treasure after engineers from Wagner Technologies set it down on Cerro Tres Puntas (Three Peaks Hill), the site of the discovery.

Arturito is becoming famous for solving mysteries that people cannot. In June, it discovered the massive arms cache buried at Colonia Dignidad, the right wing German colony compound in southern Chile. In August, it detected the remains of the body of businessman Francisco Yuraszeck, who went missing in 2004. In both cases, officials were unable to find anything on their own and relied on Arturito to solve the mystery.

On the site of Arturito?s latest discovery on Robinson Crusoe Island, excavation will not begin until October, but the turf wars have already begun.

Representatives from Wagner Technologies and the government are trying to decide how to divide the loot amongst them. The location of the site is under the jurisdiction of the Council of National Monuments, on government property. As such, there are two laws that apply to the buried treasure.

The first involves the discovery of money, jewels, and other precious articles. The law states that in any discovery where the rightful owners cannot be determined, the finds should be divided equally between the finder and the property owner.

The second law involves discoveries on national monument property, and states that any material of historical value, including ancient treasure, found on government property is archaeological by default and therefore must be returned to the state to allow for historical research on the artifacts found.

Chile?s government says that because the treasure is on national monument property, the second law applies in this case, entitling it to 100 percent of the treasure. Predictably, Wagner Technologies immediately rejected the government?s claim.

Island officials have also weighed in, stating that they are entitled to the government?s share of the find, as it was discovered on their island, effectively making them the interested property owners.

SOURCE: LA NACI?N, LA TERCERA, EL MERCURIO
By Nathan Gill ([email protected])