You may be a big businessman and very skilled in general by your previous experience, but there are big chances that you are not qualified for gold trade deals originating from Africa.
Answering following questions is going to show you if you are qualified for the business:
If you are still in fantasy being lured into thinking that there will be some nice gold deal to accomplish and all you need to do is to bring the buyer and seller together, or any other such combinations, you should first consider the fact that local buyers are everywhere.
Not only that gold is sold near the gold mines, it is sold and traded in any major city and town of any of the African countries that have developed mining activities.
As a matter of fact, most of times, one will get in average more money for the gold than when sold as scrap in Western countries.
Gold is sold for cash and occasionally for bank transfers. Anywhere in Africa is the same. Cash is the king. There is only one true procedure and that is: bring the gold, let me melt it, I am assaying it myself, and I am paying cash. Everything else like formalities and papers may be handled when necessary.There are no such things as FCO, LOI, POP, POF, bank guarantees, and all the nonsense that is being disseminated on Internet that is based on false information.
Gold is sold for cash. No questions asked.
If you believe that someone out there in Ghana or Mali or Tanzania have any problems selling gold for cash without questions asked, you are lured, naive and most probably you are inciting genuine and decent people to be involved in the criminal enterprise.
Gold is sold for cash. No questions asked.
You maybe think that a local gold owner need an ID to sell gold? Yes, maybe by the law. But practical sales is as such: they bring the gold, the gold is melted, the gold is assayed on the simple water-based scale that measures its density, and gold is paid for cash. No questions asked.
According to the law each dealer is going to keep records of whom they have bought the gold. But how a government official may know that gold come from a small scale miner Mr. Smith if gold dealer can simply write it that it came from the small scale miner Mr. John. Nobody is able to really follow where the gold came from.
Gold is sold for cash. No questions asked.
There is some cheaper gold but one has to be established locally and work with the local company and provide time, effort and energy into making business by purchasing from small scale miners and trading with the dealers located in cities. It is very questionable if profits can be easily made by exporting such gold, due to fact that exporting is costly, there are taxes and royalties to be paid, while quick business may be done with local guys purchasing it at spot for spot prices.
Most of times dealers who purchase gold from miners are going to pay spot prices, sometimes few percentages under the price. Sometimes gold is paid above the spot price.
Gold is sold easily in Ghana for 2% discounted gold price with the
AA Minerals and many other local refineries, smelting offices and dealer offices. Selected dealers are going to pay spot prices.
Gold is sold easily in Tanzania for spot prices and above spot prices. Please don't push my nose by mentioning Mali or Congo or something like that. I have done my homework, but have you done it?
Usually, gold brokers are located just nearby the jungle and bush in Tanzania, and they are paying like 5% discount. There are 15 people gathered in open, buying gold in this open hut. They are going to travel to 4 hours distant city and sell the gold for spot prices. Do you really think that anyone in that city would be willing to sell gold under the price, especially in quantities? Nobody is that crazy. People don't give money for free. Would you give few thousand dollars to someone when you can get the spot price just there in your own city? Don't be naive.
Despite all the previous explanations, there are genuine gold deals out there. While there exist no such thing as "large quantity of gold in stock under the price", by putting efforts, making proper local establishment with the company and having good people to work for you, acquiring connections and contracts, and especially by giving benefits to gold owners and miners you may make genuine gold trade deals in Africa.
Gold is rare, very demanded, and reality of gold trade and abundance of brokers and dealers is very little shown on Internet.
Even if you have arrangement to get better price for gold, like 10% discount - you would not think of exporting it, because you can sell it right there for spot price and make 10% earning.
If you are asking me to make sure if some gold deal is real, we are asking the consulting fee amounting not less than €3,500, and we can provide a full due diligence, first of all by checking out that gold is real, smelting, assaying at place and making sure about any administrative formalities.
If you are asking my company to provide you with "quantities of gold under price", that is not realistic as let us say, we have such gold somewhere available, than we can sell it ourselves, and nobody really needs a foreign buyer. We are anyway making local trade and earn money on gold deals. We cannot speak here of any considerable "quantities".
To get any good price with discount, you would need to offer some benefits to gold producers.
Some of the benefits you may offer to local gold producers are:
You can come closer to them into far distant jungle or bush and by local establishment, the company, and cash, you may purchase gold under spot prices. You are putting your efforts, energy, time and expenses into such business. It is quite possible by providing the benefit of becoming closer to the source that you make your profits. The "virtual market" on Internet is quite different, most of times the buyers assume that someone shall bring the cheap gold for "CIF payments" and fake dealers in cities offer FOB cash payments when taxes and export royalties are paid. Such deals are fake. If you wish to offer benefit as buyer, you would need to come to gold mines in not so far but still distant jungle and bush, and provide them quick cash.
You may give them alcohol, food, or some basic equipment and gain benefits, you may provide small scale miners with the clean water source, you may invest into their company, or otherwise bring heavy machines and provide them benefits in exchange for gold deals.
You may enter Joint Ventures and close contracts to get gold cheaper like 10-20% or even more, it is possible to negotiate. You may close forward production agreements. Ask yourself if you are skilled enough to estimate the feasibility of such a project.
Deals on distance - like attempting to make any serious deal by closing on distance, is mission impossible. WHOEVER REALLY HAS GOLD in the mining country, that person can easily sell the gold for cash at the spot and does not really need a foreign buyer. That is like if you have a car of US $10,000 in US, and you know you can easily sell it for US $8,000, but you place advertising on Internet to sell the same car to Japanese for US $7,000 -- which would be complete nonsense, as everybody in your city would know that you may sell it for better price in your own country.
Some good gold purchasing business may be established locally, especially when you are willing to work in far distant areas of jungle or bush -- than you may get gold like every day even few kilograms, with 5-20% discount, depending of the area. You would work long term, as locally established company, and you would sell to the nearest city for spot prices. That requires commitment and persistence, and maybe a good business, but this is not for everyone.
There are some deals that may be done with 10% discount or more, if you take all the steps to provide some companies with long-term bank guarantee, and that all needs personal presence and arrangements of affairs taking time, like you may think of 30 days to arrange it like that. Without local visit and understanding of the whole picture, such deals are not available to you at distance.
There are also deals where you can purchase gold for 10% under price, for some quantities, but personal presence is required, and money must be transferred to local bank accounts. That is hard to accomplish as those sellers will never advertise on Internet, as there are other local buyers to whom they sell.
