Running from place to place in LOTRO is a bind, but you can set your character to run automatically.

When the Shores of Evendim patch was released, members of the Prospector profession howled in dismay as the frequency of the precious metal ore deposits was cut dramatically. At a guess, I would say that the ratio of gold ore to rich iron ore (the two ore types that appear in gold ore areas) was dropped from 1:3 to 1:10. In recent days though, I've noticed a slight increase in gold ore frequnecy, which might be luck, but with makes me think that they have tinkered again and raised the ratio back to somwthing like 1:7 gold ore to rich iron ore. That said, Prospectors are still best visiting certain areas.

When you kill an enemy in LOTRO they may drop some loot. There are actually several things to know about looting in LOTRO, which help you understand what is there. Firstly, loot in LOTRO is colour coded, so you can identify the type of loot you are looking at.