Wild Land is undeveloped land, public or private mainland. Private land ownership may not include mining rights to land. Think of it this way: a large metropolitan city may have an underground metro system that connects the subway tracks in a network of tunnels. People and businesses that own land above the underground metro system are not, and may not be aware that it operates below their land.

Before you bother looking for gold, find out who owns the land you are interested in and find out who owns the mineral rights to that wild land. With gold priced at $ 1278 / ounce (today), do your homework to minimize the time and effort to find a small ounce of gold that will put a lot of money in your pocket. Determine the probability that there is gold in your target’s wild land and its state (pure or embedded in the rock). You also want to know if the gold will come to you or if it should go to it. A force of nature, like water from a natural spring, can bring gold to the surface of the wild land. Over time, running water erodes gold-containing rocks, so that you can find pure gold in the form of dust or nuggets in low places in a stream bed. But, if you do find some gold that way, keep in mind that it got there by increased natural water that passed through the gold-containing rock (like quartz).

In the United States, most people associate gold with California and Alaska, but were you aware of the first gold discovery in North Carolina (1799)? Some of the purest gold in the United States still comes from North Carolina and northern South Carolina (gold veins don’t stop at state lines). Begin your wildland gold research by studying state guides to find out where known gold veins are located. Then, shift your search to the counties within those states to find out who owns the wilderness there and how to get to them. After that, you have three tasks ahead of you. First, determine how you will search, what equipment you need, and where you will sell the gold if you find it. Second, contact the landowners and honestly discuss what you want to do. Seek cooperation. Many landowners will reject you. You do better if you are rejected and you learn from the experience than if you are accused of raiding and confiscating the gold you found. With perseverance, you will find landowners who will talk to you. When they agree to speak with you, come prepared to listen, to speak clearly and honestly. They are probably interested in something you have said, or they would not talk to you. A landlord will likely tell you that they do not want their family, animals, water source, or the appearance of the land to be altered, and that they do not want to hear loud noises or receive complaints from their neighbors about what you are doing. After those details have been worked out to your satisfaction, they will want to come to a binding agreement with you on how much of the value of the gold found on your land will be given to them.

Always practice patience, honesty, and transparency with a cooperative landowner. Request a trial period before a deal, so you can determine the gold evidence before investing your costs and time, and invite the land owner to be present as often as you like while you search. That way, both of you will get to know each other and like each other. Tell the owner exactly where you would sell the gold found on your land and invite the owner to join you if that happy event occurs (overhead). Transparency leads to trust, which leads to an agreement that can be put on paper, witnessed, and signed.

Negotiate the agreement carefully before putting it on paper to present to the land owner. You speak first because you offered to do something. The land owner speaks last because it won’t happen unless he agrees. When you speak first, state your costs. Don’t skip any cost. Examples include: tools, work clothes, equipment (rented or depreciated if you own business equipment), your labor cost, the cost of housing, meals, transportation, and any other costs you incur because you are not living near the land of the owner. It offers a target price for one ounce of gold in the form of a range. You don’t know how long to work to find gold, and the price can go up or down. Protect yourself in the settlement if it drops substantially. Protect the land owner if the price goes up substantially.

The simplest agreements are formed about who bears the risk. You can agree to divide the proceeds from the sale of gold you find in the wild if the owner agrees to pay half of your search cost, even if you do not find gold. If you bear all the costs, you must explain that if all the risk is yours, you cannot eat. Argue that 90% of the profits should come to you if the landlord does nothing but watch while you work and pay nothing if he does not. Don’t get excited and don’t let the land owner get excited if the initial negotiation stalls. Just take a break, share a meal, and suggest taking more trial time to get used to each other; negotiate later. When you come to an agreement, be careful to include how you will demonstrate your time invested to the land owner. It can be as simple as stopping by your home before you go hunting for gold in the wild and at the end of the day. Both parties who sign the agreement must keep a record of their work. This business process will make sense to you and the land owner once it is complete. After completion, it is a repeatable process, plus you and the land owner will likely build a foundation of trust, a bond, a friendship. They will both rejoice when they find gold in their wild land.