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HERE.
Heavy Pans
Nice read man, I always figured that the US was the preferred location due to the lack of corruption and laws that govern the industry or hobby compared to other nations.
We have a place in Switzerland and only pay about 40 bucks a year to prospect there but certain environmental laws really slow things down on how it is extracted.
In Germany it just depends on what state you get your permit from and what cops you have to pay off, but the gold there is crap.
In Romania the gold is amazing if you you can get to it; then it is up to you if you are going to do it legal or not. When we went in for our permits there they tried to act like we had to pay thousands of dollars to prospect, then we showed our Interpol creds and asked how they felt about making headlines for corruption. Yeah it cost us about 13 bucks a year to play there.
Norway is also great, the sort of bush you can walk out with 12 ounces after a days work on a small Keene dredge, you just have to either sell there or smuggle it out. Selling there means taking 30% off the top.
Parts of Northern Africa is pretty nice if you are ready to pull your weapon on corrupt cops that try to rob you.
Greenland is really good too, but it just depends on how their government feels that day. Meaning if someone in that office has found something nice online they want to buy then you get to pay for it, and they do not care about making headlines.
I do not know anything about the industry its self, it is just a hobby and I never did better than 15 ounces in a day and never did it longer than 18 days in a row because I have a job and it is just my hobby. However with it being my hobby I can think of better places than the US I would prospect, but if I did it for a living then I would go to the US or CA because they have set laws in place and stand by them.
My brother in law makes his living this way; he is a German National but some year ago went to the US for a resident visa. He was very honest with them and let them know he had about 20 million dollars he wanted to put on an account in the US and pay US taxes rather than taxes in his own nation. They opened them doors real fast for him. He travels all over to some pretty messed up places for gold and platinum, but it always ends up in the US.