Of the 1,488 USGS mine records in Inyo County, 542 list gold as a primary commodity. The rest report a wide array of commodities, including silver, lead , zinc, and copper.
WMH Mine Discovery Tools for Google Earth are available for Inyo county
The USGS gives the following synopsis of Inyo County gold mining history:
Gold has been produced from numerous mines scattered throughout Inyo County, but, unfortunately, details of the geology and production of individual districts are incomplete.
From 1880 through 1959, a total of 496,000 ounces of gold was mined in the county. Most of this was lode production, but a considerable quantity was a byproduct from lead-silver, tungsten, and copper ores.
Mining began as early as 1861 in the Russ district in the Inyo Range, but production data for these early years are incomplete.
The lode deposits are scattered throughout numerous mountain ranges in the county. The most important gold-producing districts are the Ballarat and Wild Rose in the Panamint Range, the Chloride Cliff in the Funeral Range, the Resting Springs in the Nopah Range, the Sherman in the Argus Range, the Union in the Inyo Range, and the Willshire-Bishop Creek, an important tungsten district on the east slope of the Sierras.
read the full USGS report on Inyo gold mines here.
