I got a lead on this story — strangely enough — from a reality TV show.

Before you write me off as a loon, consider this…

It’s not easy to get news from the front lines of every resource boom. Sure, we try. I’ve had my share of exposure to South Africa’s gold mining biz and other gold operations. And our other in-house editors have racked up the frequent flier miles, too — Serbia, Mongolia, Namibia, Colombia, Brazil, China, Russia, India, the Northern wilds of Canada and more!

But you can’t be everywhere at once. Till now, Ghana’s gold belt hasn’t been the radar.

A Valuable Tip From Reality TV — The African Wild West

Boots off, feet up — it was another Friday night at home watching season one of the Discovery Channel’s “Jungle Gold.” (There’s plenty of resource-hunting shows out there these days, too: Gold Rush, Silver Rush, Ice Cold Gold, Black Gold and more!)

In Jungle Gold, two American yahoos are looking to strike it rich in Ghana’s gold fields. The country’s “Ashanti Belt” is home to massive deposits of gold. An ancient river that ran through the area deposited gold along the banks. Today, Ghana’s gold is found just feet under the tan soil in gravel-laced hot-spots.

Without spoiling the outcome of season one, let’s just say the two Americans had their share of troubles.

I remember thinking to myself, man, Ghana is like the Wild West!

Locals are clamoring to make money and improve their livelihood. Poverty, however, is very evident. Bribe-forcing, theft, muggings, violent robberies and even murder are all too frequent in this boom-country.

Local tribesmen, the lawmen in the town, control mining claims that they lease out to foreigners for quick cash. Property rights for mining claims are loose. Claim-jumping, strong-arming, and violence are often in control. Indeed, if you have the weapons and personnel, taking what you want is rather effortless.

Alls fair in love and gold, I guess.

But amidst the plot of this reality TV show stood one simple, but under-noticed fact.

While the directors aimed to enhance the plotline for these gold-hungry Americans, they randomly stumbled upon what I believe to be the biggest global gold trend of the decade.

In short, the two American yahoos, while trying to secure a mining claim, found thousands of Chinese nationals are overtaking many of the mining concessions in Ghana. It’s illegal, but no one was stopping the brute force of the Chinese. As one local tribesman admitted, the Chinese “have guns” and aren’t easy to move from a claim.

How Do You Say “Claim Jumper” In Chinese?

If you’re watching the reality show looking for a good plot the Chinese claim jumpers make for a good antagonist. But if you’re tuned in to the show as a gold watcher, you know there’s a lot more to this story.

For starters, what the heck are thousands of Chinese nationals crawling around Ghana’s gold fields for?

They’ve got man power… they’ve got materials… they’ve got dogs… they’ve got guns… and, holy cow, now they’ve got Ghana’s gold!

The news was slow to get out on the story, too.

In fact, most mainstream sources only caught on after Ghana recently laid down the law.

According to The Guardian “Thousands of Chinese nationals have been deported from Ghana in a crackdown on the plunder of the country’s gold by illegal miners.”

But by the time the news hit the airwaves the damage was already done. A lot of the easy to grab gold, as your editor sees it, was loaded on to Chinese ships and sent east.

This Chinese gold grab is all part of a bigger story, the biggest gold story of the decade if you ask me.

China’s Global Gold Grab — Watch Out, Come 2015

China is accumulating gold at an obscene pace and, come 2015, we’re going to see a huge announcement.

Fact is, China may not be far from being the world’s top gold holder. Here’s what we know:

• The country is the world’s largest producer of gold — on record pace this year to produce 440 metric tons of gold.

• Gold imports through Hong Kong to mainland China are also at record pace this year — during the first half of 2013 the country imported over 726 metric tons.

With those two bullets in mind, China’s “official” gold holdings are laughable. Last reported in April of 2009, the Middle Kingdom claimed to have only 1,054 metric tons in storage.

Without even counting imports from the second half of the year, China’s gold hoard could be double what it claims — and that’s just from gold movement this year!

But we’re not that naïve to think the Chinese are merely going to double their gold holdings, are we?

If we do some back of the envelope math, since the country’s last “official” announcement we’ll quickly see that China could be holding an EXTRA 4,000 metric tons (or more) of gold. That’s enough gold to place them firmly as the world’s second largest gold holder.

But let’s get back to that reality TV bit above. China, the way I see it, isn’t just producing large amounts of gold and legally importing bullion from Hong Kong.

Instead the country is extending its tentacles around the globe, grabbing as many mining concessions as it can.

“China’s government has urged national gold producers to boost development of overseas resources in neighboring countries and in Africa and Latin America” Bloomberg writes earlier this month.

Importantly, according to China’s latest five year plan, the goal is to load up on as much gold as possible by 2015.

Regardless of where China is getting its gold — Ghana or elsewhere — just know that the country is hoarding. And come 2015, we’re set to see a whopper of an announcement.

Don’t say reality TV never taught you anything — China’s gold grab is on.

Keep your boots muddy,

Matt Insley