The Mines Gold Rush is a five-reel video slot machine developed by RealTime Gaming (RTG), one of the most renowned online casino software providers. This game has been available in casinos since 2018 and has quickly gained popularity among players worldwide due to its exciting minesplay – Mines gameplay, engaging bonus features, and generous payouts.
Theme and Design
The theme of this slot is set in a gold rush town, where miners are on the hunt for riches. The background image depicts a bustling mining town with wooden buildings, carts, and miners scrambling around. The overall design is colorful and vibrant, with golden tones dominating the game’s aesthetic. The reels themselves feature standard playing card symbols, from Ace to King, as well as high-paying mine-themed icons such as Pickaxes, Gold Bars, Minecarts, Dynamite Crates, and a charismatic Prospector.
Symbols
The slot machine features both low- and high-paying symbols. The low-paying symbols include the A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9 playing cards, while the high-paying symbols are related to the gold rush theme: Pickaxes (worth up to $100 for a five-of-a-kind combination), Gold Bars ($125 for a five-obar match), Minecarts ($150), Dynamite Crates ($175), and the charismatic Prospector who can award prizes of up to $250. The game also features two special symbols, which we will discuss in more detail below.
Payouts
The payouts are quite generous, with a top prize of 50x your stake for landing five Prospector icons on a payline. The Minecarts and Dynamite Crates offer 25x the total bet each when appearing five times on an active line. In addition to these standard winning combinations, players can also participate in exciting bonus features that have the potential to award significantly larger prizes.
Wilds
The Wild symbol in this game is represented by a golden coin icon with a mine cart graphic emblazoned upon it. This character substitutes for any other symbol except for Scatter and Bonus icons. Players will find one Wild on each reel, adding an exciting element of unpredictability to their gameplay as these symbols can suddenly appear on the reels at any time.
Scatters
The scatter is depicted by a golden mine icon with two dynamite sticks crossed over it. It triggers free spins when three or more appear anywhere on the screen during normal play. These scatters are not influenced by payline requirements and thus award additional rewards regardless of where they land within the reels’ 243 possible winning combinations.
Bonus Features
One of Mines Gold Rush’s most compelling features is its ‘Prospector Bonus’, triggered whenever a player lands three or more gold bars on adjacent reels (left to right). For each Bar that appears, players are awarded an additional free spin, but up to 10, while they collect their treasure. Players must then navigate a series of six pickable Dynamite Crates containing various Gold Bars (2-20) and cash values from $5-$50.
During the Prospector Bonus round, the game features three different types of bonus symbols that can appear on any free spin: Prospectors’ Reward ($25), Gold Bar Cache , or Dynamite Crate . Each bonus has its own unique reward value. In addition to these bonuses, there is also a mystery cash prize hidden within one Dynamite crate at each launch of the Prospector round.
The gold bar-filled mine that serves as both Wild and Scatter symbol in standard play expands when triggered during Free Spins with a large wild or scatter placed randomly on all reels along side several others. This unique feature greatly enhances free spin rounds’ potential payout, increasing chances for multiple wins simultaneously on each turn due to numerous winning combinations possible thanks to additional extra-large symbols.
Free Spins
The Mines Gold Rush offers two main types of Free Spin bonuses:
- Prospector Bonus : Awarded when three or more Gold Bar icons appear adjacent to one another.
- Free Spins Bonus : Triggered by the appearance of three scatters on any reel, these free spins offer players ten bonus turns with additional extra-large symbol appearances.
Return to Player (RTP)
The RTP is quite competitive, sitting at 95%, which means a player can expect approximately $0.95 in returns for every dollar invested into this game over the long term.