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Does anyone here prospect in Africa? (Do they have internet?)  I know prospectors who have gone to Africa and prospected and taught but is anyone on this forum there?  We never seem to know what is going on there with metal detecting.

One of the reasons I ask is that with the release of the new Minelab GPX 6000 it has been stated that this detector was released to Africa months ago.  What is the difference?

Wasn't the Gold Monster designed originally for the African market?

We look at sales for Minelab and Africa is their biggest market.  Why do I never see many pictures or read any stories?

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I wondered the same thing Mitchel. Rumors are its 1849 California there. You would think a leaked photo or two would hit the internet occasionally?

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Loose lips sink ships. Same with any gold rush.

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I have a Ghanaian work colleague and we talked about African gold prospecting.......he mentioned that in many parts it wouldn’t be safe (for Westerners) to nugget hunt there by yourself or even in groups........you’re basically taking their gold and the locals wouldn’t like it one bit and trying to “smuggle” gold out of the country is another matter entirely. Corruption and danger lurks everywhere and for many, gold prospecting is a means of survival.

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I really wasn't thinking about going there or suggest someone hunt there but wondered what any 'locals' say about it.  You did bring up a good point about the danger.  If you let anyone know you have/had something then it could be used against you.

There isn't even any dealer type news but I have heard that there are 'returns' of excess equipment and detectors that were traded in on simpler machines.

Why no 6000 news or pictures?

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I think people over there are just from a different mindset. If they are successful finding gold they will hide and not tell due to fear. Sadly, this region of the world is highly unsafe and the last thing people probably care about is chatting on social media about their 6k detectors which is more than the average annual salary for many. It is striking though, the largest market for ML is essentially silent like a black hole. I always wanted to visit Africa. Unfortunately, for me it will be Discovery channel only. The risk for me and my family would just be too high.

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Here a list of the average annual income per country. In 22 countries the annual income is below what the 6000 costs, including all in Africa.

https://www.worlddata.info/average-income.php

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What amazes me is that despite all the poverty it is still the biggest ML market. Interesting topic, thanks for brining this up Mitchel.

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There are various videos on Youtube, Facebook, etc. They usually aren't like Western videos though, they don't seem to really show much detecting. I doubt many villagers have time or resources to be posting to forums or creating videos.

The Western US was incredibly dangerous back in the 1800's when the prospectors came out. I find the potential adventure in another country to be a somewhat tempting prospect myself. I have little family, nothing to lose really, why not.

Problem is I can't find any place where legally you are allowed to go prospect. I checked Papua New Guinea, which I think has an amazing potential for nuggety gold based on the geology I've read. It's incredibly dangerous too. But sadly foreigners aren't really allowed to prospect and every square inch is privately owned.

I also made some friends in China with my various jade ventures, and they tell me there is 0% chance I can ever go there and prospect or keep the gold (or jade). Which is ironic since we allow any Chinese or other foreign company to simply form a corporation here in any state and we treat it like a person with equal rights as a natural born citizen when it comes to mining laws.

I'm curious if anyone knows any countries that an American can go and prospect that are still "on the frontier" like in Africa, keep the gold, maybe even stake a claim or start a mine? Or do we only give our minerals away to any country that wants them while getting no reciprocity in return from anyone?

 

 

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