You're the only one saying that nobody has found those amounts... As a retired professional, I will never divulge anyone's exact locations, that's still my job. All I can say to you is "Look Harder". Eastern Europe is a large area, you haven't been everywhere, not one of us ever has. I can almost guarantee you, that you will never see anything written down about this place because it is all owned and gold production is strictly controlled by that particular government. I know about it as do many others along with even better places around the world. Most choose not to risk their lives to get the tough gold. When I was younger, I was a black water diver for many years, I took the risks and got the gold, so I get called every now and again to help others get the right equipment for their projects.
I'm open minded about there being very good spots out there, but you said "eastern Mediterrean countries are loaded with gold" but people don't bother picking it up as there's even more oil, giving people ideas that Oddjobs numbers are not only valid but rather modest aswell.
No, I havent prospected each and every creek but the Romans did and the Greeks before them. And where they found most of the gold, they stayed, built camps and mined. The same areas are mined to this day by Big Business, check out the Majdanpek mine, the Bor Mine, or even the Trepca complex. These are old Roman mines still operated today.
The richest areas have been prospected in and out for thousands of years, drilled etc. It is still known by everyone that the bedrock of the Pek river is loaded with gold, but its 20-30 feet down with overburden mostly worthless. So yes, you could spend weeks moving overburden to reach the bedrock and then "dredge 10 ounces / hour" for a little while until it is time to move overburden again.
Big Business know very well about where the gold is and where it isn't. Money talks in Eastern Europe and they wouldn't have any trouble getting permits to mine the placers if they were that rich. Instead, they stick to hard rock mining "normal" averages of 2-5g AU/tonne.
So yes, there might or might not be an anomaly where some villagers dredge 200 000 $ per day, but this isn't anything close to normal for the "eastern Mediterrean countries". Wealthy western Europeans invest heavily in equipment after hearing these stories, they spend a few seasons trying and then give up. There is gold, there are prospectors everywhere - local and international, recreational or professional.
I should also mention that of all the gold fields I visited around the world, the by far best placer I found was in Sweden. I've prospected for years here without even a single color to be found. I still kept on going and found one place just loaded with gold. There were up to 500 colors in each pan, thin but decent sized specks - the bottom of the pan would be completely yellow. The streak was very limited however, geological conditions made the gold gather in just that spot.
I spent weeks prospecting the surroundings, I went up 70 miles upstream towards the glacial direction, but didnt find even a tiny speck of gold anywhere else.
Still, I dont argue that "Sweden is loaded with gold". It holds less gold than anywhere I've been. We've got wealthy people with lots of money and time, being inspired by Discovery and using advanced dredges all over the place, coming up with nothing. We've even got people manufacturing dredges or people working full time with the gold panning industry, and they all gave up dredging on their own long time ago.
So when tourists claim they just drove in and pulled up 10 ounces, and then went on to Norway accomplishing the same thing, I just know it didn't happend.