Worth hunting old mine areas?

[MuckyBottles]

Got a few old mines in my area, was hesitant to hunt them due to them being iron mines and that they may mask the goods...is it worth a shot? ...or would I be wasting my time...

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[hvacker]

My understanding is that platinum is sometimes found with iron. So ya I'd take a look.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

What did they mine there ? If you're talking about prospecting (some sort of mineral or nuggets, etc...) then perhaps. Then that would be a question for prospecting/mining forums.

But if you're talking about coins and relics of the miners, then no. The places they "worked" is not the place to be detecting for their fumble fingers losses. You want to hunt where they LIVED. Their miner towns and tent cities could be a considerable distance away. Wherever they ate, slept, drank, shopped (bought/sold/commerce) is where you want to hunt, NOT where they worked.

It's easy to get drawn to the visible ruins of things that still exist-to-be-seen, like stamp mills, mine entrances, sluice-box foundations, etc... Simply because they're still visible to us today. However, the tent-city zones can be totally invisible today, hence not "eye-catching" like processing/mining work-zone stuff. Find out where the workers lived, and those are the zones to hunt.