Miners and online slots players are after the same thing – riches. Therefore it is hardly surprising that online casino software providers offer several games with the theme of gold and diamond mining. As the software technology has evolved, so has the quality of the mining themed slot games. This article looks at some of the more popular of such slot games.

The slot game from Microgaming is Fortune Finder and is a relatively simple offering compared to today’s standards. An exciting aspect is that the player can convert the symbol of his choice from gold, ruby and diamond into the wild symbol. The other mining related symbols on the reels are mine cart, miner, pan of precious stones, dynamite sticks and pick axe. The mine cart awards the jackpot payout of 6,000 coins. The miner is the scatter symbol. When three, four or five miner symbols appear anywhere on the reels the player is awarded 15, 20 or 25 free spins with all payouts doubled. Fortune Finder includes the trademark Microgaming gamble game where players have to guess to color or suit of the next card and try to respectively double or quadruple their payouts. Fortune Finder is live at Microgaming online casinos such as All Slots and Golden Riviera.

The Realtime Gaming mining themed online slot Paydirt is richer in bonus features. There more thematic symbols as well because the customary high value card symbols have not been used. The symbols include mine entrance, miner, outlaw, donkey, mine cart, dynamite, pan, lantern and pick axe. The gold nugget wild symbol appears only on reels 2 and 4, but it compensates for this by acting as a 3x multiplier when it appears in winning combinations. The Paydirt logo is the scatter symbol and it triggers one of three bonus games. The Gold Rush bonus game awards 12 free spins in which the gold nugget wild symbol appears stacked on the reels. The Gold Fever bonus game awards only 5 free spins. But the third reel is held with all spots being wild gold nugget symbols. This increases the chance of a five of a kind win. The Strike It Lucky bonus game awards 10 free spins in which a bonus symbol acts as a second wild symbol. Paydirt is from the Realtime Gaming Real Series and includes the characteristic randomly triggered progressive jackpot. Paydirt can be played at Realtime Gaming online casinos such as Club World and Planet 7.

Hot Gems from Playtech is a visual delight. The graphics are brighter and sharper and the animated introductory clip is awesome. A miner digging inside a tunnel opens up the seam causing a flood of gems that carries the miner out. The symbols on the reels are similar to the other games and include miner, lantern, pick axe and mine cart. Colorful gems are used instead of high value cards, which add to the thematic value. The special feature of Hot Gems is the innovative Collapsing Reels. The symbols that make up the winning combinations after a spin explode and leave empty spaces, which are filled by replacement symbols. If another winning combination is formed then the process repeats. Playtech enhances the Collapsing Reels feature during the free spins. The multiplier is increased by 1 each time the reels collapse during the same spin. Hot Gems is live at Playtech online casinos such as Bet365 and Paddy Power.