From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishprospectorpro‧spec‧tor /prəˈspektə $ ˈprɑːspektər/ noun [countable] LOOK FORsomeone who looks for gold, minerals, oil etc
Examples from the Corpus
prospector• The first courtesy of a prospector is to have the land-owner's permission to be there.• Both scientific and commercial biodiversity prospectors should pay fees, as mineral prospectors do.• Apples were in great demand from the gold prospectors in the Western States.• The mines were owned, Eler said, by private prospectors, some of who had been searching fruitlessly for fifty years.• The hardy pioneers were prospectors, crossing the rugged Continental Divide in their search for gold. 