Russia investigators said on Tuesday they had detained the owner of a ship carrying a cargo of gold ore that went missing in icy seas 10 days ago and is believed lost with nine crew members.

The Amurskaya cargo ship, carrying 750 tonnes of gold ore in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia's Far East coast disappeared in high seas on October 28 when an emergency radio distress beacon was triggered.

A hulk has been found on the seabed that is believed to be the missing ship after an unsuccessful air and sea rescue operation.

"Alexander Shiltsin, the owner of Nikolayevsky-on-Amur seaport, which owns the cargo ship Amurskaya, was arrested November 5 on suspicion of committing a crime," the Far Eastern transport prosecutors said in a statement.

Shiltsin is suspected of causing deaths through breaches of safety rules, prosecutors said, an offence carrying a maximum prison sentence of seven years, and he is expected to be held behind bars pending trial.

Prosecutors said earlier the ship had technical problems, did not take the stormy conditions into account and left port without permission. It also had too few crew members and was overloaded with 700-750 tonnes of gold ore.

Experts estimated the value of the ore at more than $230,000 (175,000 euros), the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The ship went missing close to the Shantar Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk, which lies east of the Khabarovsk region and north of Japan's Hokkaido Island. The rescue operation was hindered by three-metre-high (10-foot-high) waves, rain and sleet.

A rescue ship found an "underwater object and a light emission of fuel on the sea surface," the Federal Sea and River Transport agency said, while it was not yet clear whether it was the Amurskaya as the weather was too bad to send down divers.