orecastEvery place has an underground. Do you know yours?
Tap a spot in Europe and see what's beneath you: minerals, gold, fossils or traces of history. orecast draws on real geological records, so you see what's actually documented about a place, not just a guess.
Free, no account. Your location, straight on the map.
- Ore spoil heap in a pit field
- Shaft
- Shaft
- Quarries (geotope)
- Bunker
- Mining
- Geotope
- Limestone
- History
Diepenlinchen near Stolberg: woods and meadows in the aerial photo, old spoil heaps, pits and quarries in the relief. The points come from our data; the heatmap shows where the region has the most mining records.
Licences
Aerial photo (DOP) and relief (DGM1): dl-de/zero-2.0. Heatmap base map: basemap.de, dl-de/by-2.0. Points: ODbL. Geotope and limestone (raw-material map RK50): dl-de/by-2.0. Heatmap: orecast, density of mining records, graded within the detail.
What it looks like in the app
Real screenshots of the orecast app: the same data as here, plus relief scanner, heatmap and areas to take along.
Screenshots of the app on an iPhone. Base map: © OpenStreetMap contributors and official geodata; full credits in the app under “Licences”.
News & videos
New episodes and updates from orecast, straight from our data work and the YouTube channel.
Also:
- Staßfurt dug 3 million cubic metres of salt out of the ground. Then it caved in.
- Wünsdorf 1939: twelve houses that were bunkers, then 41 years as a closed zone
- New on the orecast map: the relief scanner shows what lies beneath the forest
Where orecast has data
Everything runs from our own database. Across the EU, EFTA and the UK we hold fossils, historical & WWII sites and caves & mining; national mineral surveys add dense mineral data for the highlighted countries. Documented mineral points everywhere else come from USGS MRDS.
Map: orecast
Key
- Minerals + fossils, history & caves/mining
- Fossils, history & caves/mining (minerals worldwide)
What you get
Minerals & ores
Recorded finds, plus what the local rock makes likely. You see where raw materials and gold could turn up, and we skip the made-up percentages.
Fossils
Fossil sites from the scientific record (PBDB and GBIF), each with its geological age, rock formation and source. Made for fossil hunting and rockhounding.
History & archaeology
Archaeological sites, castles and other landmarks. Where old munitions might still be in the ground, you get a clear safety warning.
AI insight
Ask “what would I find if I dug here?” and get a plain-language answer. It's built only from the local data. Nothing is invented.
Popular regions
Pick a city to see the recorded finds, fossils and historical sites nearby.
All 43 regionsTopic guides
Guides to real regions, backed by documented finds and the local geology.
- Find fossils near me
- Gold panning near me
- Rockhounding near me
- How to identify fossils
- Identify rocks & minerals
- Collecting: allowed or not?
- Gold & ore in the Harz
- Silver in the Ore Mountains
- Fossils of the Swabian Alb
- Gold in the Black Forest
- Volcanoes of the Eifel
- Fossils in Solnhofen & the Altmühl valley
- Gold panning in the Alps
- Fossils in the Ruhr area
- Finding amber on the Baltic coast
- Agate & gemstones in Idar-Oberstein
To take with you
For your next day out: a verified map and the permission form you need beforehand.
Treasure Map Germany
32 individually verified places in Germany for fossils, minerals and gold, each with a traffic light (collect yourself, with rules, look only), a fact sheet and the legal situation per state. 33 pages as a PDF, in German, €12.90.
The finds folder
A landowner permission form to tick through and a find report sheet, as fillable PDFs. Free.
Treasure hunting that starts with real data
Wondering where to find gold, minerals or fossils near you? A lot of “treasure map” sites simply guess. orecast looks at recorded mineral occurrences and the geology underneath, then separates what's genuinely on file at a spot from what the rock merely makes possible. That's what makes it handy for gold prospecting, rockhounding and fossil hunting across Europe.
We try not to oversell. A promising rock type is not the same as a find, and you'll never see a made-up number here. Bear in mind that digging and collecting are regulated almost everywhere, protected monuments are off-limits, and old battlegrounds can still hold live munitions. orecast points these things out, but it can't give you permission.
Safety & law: Check the local rules before you search or dig. And never dig at sites flagged for old munitions. Unexploded ordnance can kill.
Free, no account needed.
FAQ
What is orecast?
A free map that shows what is documented beneath any point in Europe: minerals and gold, fossils, caves and old mining, geosites, historical places and traces of the Second World War. It is built from recorded data and geology rather than guesswork.
Where can I find gold?
orecast marks where gold is actually on record and where the geology only makes it possible, such as river placers. It will not promise you gold; likely rock is not the same as a find.
Is orecast free?
The map with every find spot is free and works without an account, and so is a limited number of AI assessments. Your own finds, likes and comments need a free account. orecast Pro adds unlimited AI assessments, individual special layers such as the gold-panning rivers, offline areas for the field and GPX export, and removes the ads in the app. The website is cookieless and free of third-party tracking; the free app shows non-personalised ads.
Which areas are covered?
Documented mineral points worldwide come from USGS MRDS. For Europe we add dense data from the national geological surveys for Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Austria, as well as Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Czechia and Poland. The geology beneath a point comes from the BGR 1:250,000 overview map in Germany and from the joint map of the geological surveys (EGDI) in 23 European countries. In the USA we show more than 260,000 documented occurrences, the geology of the 48 contiguous states and old mining from historical USGS maps, such as adits, shafts and prospect pits. Fossils and historical sites are so far available for Europe only.
Am I allowed to search and collect anywhere?
No. Collecting, metal detecting and gold panning are regulated almost everywhere in Europe and usually need a permit. orecast shows what applies in twelve countries and all sixteen German federal states, plus protected areas and historical sites. The app gives you information, not permission.
Can I show my own finds?
Yes. You store finds privately and to the metre; if you choose to share, they appear anonymously on the map after review, coarsened to about five kilometres. Others can like and comment on them, and every comment passes an AI check first.
Treasure Map Germany: 32 verified places as a PDF (in German)