#1 I am an American and would have to declare any purchase above a certain dollar amount. I don't mind this, but the duty will quickly eat up some of the cost savings. The guy I was talking to said I could make it into jewelry and then not declare (which is technically illegal, but I guess harder to get caught).
#2 The guys that offer a good discount want to move a large amount of gold (1 Kilo).
#3 I would venture a guess that the ones doing this are mining illegally in their country. From what I read, China is doing a lot of illegal mining in some countries with the government looking the other way (80% of my flight from Egypt to Ghana was made up of Chinese visitors). Additionally, state permitted mines likely have a good source to sell the gold to. I suspect the ones looking to foreigners to sell to are trying to bypass some regulation/taxes, etc. I even believe some countries put restrictions in gold outflow.
Finally, it could be a scam for sure. However, even if not a scam, I would be cautious, as I said I looked into it while in Ghana and felt there was too much risk and people not playing by the rules, etc.
If anyone is seriously interested in buying from Africa, do a lot of research before sending any money.
Yeah, there has to be some sort of catch to it.
To me OP is likely trying to outright scam - these dealings seem to happen quite locally and if they could ship the gold freely across the world then there is virtually no need for anyone to be selling this at a discount.
For anyone interested, you should go into the deal with the expectation you are dealing with a conman. It's too fishy to be true imho.