UK salvage company Britannia's Gold (BGL) has said it is "immensely frustrated" by delays to its war-wreck cargo retrieval plans caused by Covid-19.
The firm has previously used chartered-in offshore support vessels (OSVs) to try to recover bullion and other valuable cargo trapped within sunken vessels off the UK and Ireland.
But in February, it signalled a switch to South-East Asia during the northern hemisphere winter - just before the coronavirus shut down its unnamed target country.
In an update this week, it apologised for the delay in relaying news to shareholders and said any use of the word "progress" to describe its current project status "is perhaps overly optimistic."
"That said, we do see glimmers of light amidst the Covid 19 fall-out," it added.
BGL said its sole objective at the moment is to recover various cargoes of metals owned by an unnamed Pacific salvage client and transport them to a chosen refinery, after which they will be sold and utilised to fund the start of the Pacific salvage programme when it is allowed to operate again.
One such cargo has had a number of false starts but relevant government agencies opened for business on Monday, so it is hoping to have the paperwork processed quickly.
New investor brought in
"We have transport available as a new investor in the Pacific project has supplied a suitable aircraft. We await clearance," it added.
"As to other cargoes, and the start of the Pacific salvage, subject to having successfully sold the cargo above, the country of relevance opens up on 16 June."
BGL said: "We are immensely frustrated at present and clearly way behind our originally planned timetable. That said, we continue to explore every opportunity to move forward."
Its work is reliant on systems and ships operating from Hong Kong or Singapore.
It had earlier said a client had been cashing in gold discoveries on land to finance the expeditions.
A final decision as to the choice of salvage vessel had been due before the pandemic hit.
The wrecks are from World War 2 and are non-British, which has meant accessing archives in the Far East.
BGL has previously worked with UK shipowner James Fisher and Norwegian OSV company Ostensjo Rederi.
Last year, its team cut through 90% of an extremely high-tensile steel hull off the British Isles, but found the going tough. It has not revealed whether any cargo has yet been recovered.
During both world wars the British government shipped gold bullion to pay for munitions and goods.
The estimated present day value of these shipments is about £300bn ($404bn).
The UK government is the owner of the bounty.
BGL has said it will store anything it retrieves and enter into negotiations to divide up the spoils.
Some of its cut will be kept for future projects, some will be given to charity and some will be for shareholders.
