Overview

Gold Mine is a tile-laying and exploration game where players build a maze of mine tunnels and control miners searching for gold nuggets. Players first collaboratively build the mine by placing tiles, then descend into it to race for gold. The first player to collect the required number of gold nuggets and exit the mine wins.

Components

• 100 game tiles: 1 Mine Entrance tile, 28 Gold Chamber tiles, 67 Mine Tunnel tiles, 4 Cavern tiles (with Mine Entrance back)
• 15 tiles with Secret Passage entrances (4 Gold Chamber + 11 Mine Tunnel)
• 28 Gold Nuggets
• 6 Miners (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Black, White)
• 2 dice
• 18 Gold Challenge tokens
• 18 Bat Challenge tokens

Setup

1. Place the Mine Entrance tile face up in the center of the table.
2. Shuffle the remaining tiles thoroughly.
3. Stack 20 tiles face down for the Development Mining phase.
4. Place remaining tiles face down in accessible stacks.
5. Assign a Miner to each player.
6. Deal 3 Gold Challenge tokens and 3 Bat Challenge tokens to each player.
7. Roll dice to determine starting player (highest wins).

Turn Structure

The game has two phases:

Phase I: Development Mining

Players take turns placing 1 tile per turn from the 20-tile stack, following tile placement rules. Once all 20 tiles are placed, the mine is ready.

Phase II: Production Mining

Each turn consists of:

1. Miner Movement (choose one):

• Excavate & move 1: Draw a tile, place it, optionally move 1 space along a tunnel
• Roll & move: Roll 1 die, move up to that many tiles along tunnels (may stop early)
• Traverse Secret Passage: Roll both dice; if doubles or sum of 7, teleport to any other Secret Passage entrance. Otherwise, move up to the lower die number
• Opt out: Skip movement entirely

2. Miner Action (either or both, optional):

• Collect a Gold Nugget from your current Gold Chamber tile
• Initiate a Challenge against another player

Actions

Tile Placement Rules

• Tiles must be placed on a grid adjacent to existing tiles (not corner-to-corner)
• All tunnels on adjacent tiles must connect exactly
• Unexpcavated walls may be placed adjacent to each other
• If a Gold Chamber tile is placed, immediately place a Gold Nugget on it
• Cavern tiles have no connection restrictions and allow full passage
• If a tile cannot be legally placed, return it randomly to a stack and draw another

Collecting Gold

• Miner must be on a Gold Chamber tile at end of Miner Movement
• Remove the Gold Nugget and place it in front of you
• Once collected, no more nuggets may be placed on that tile (except via Gold Challenge)

Challenges

Only 1 challenge per turn. Challenger discards a challenge token.

Gold Challenge: Attempt to steal gold from another player.

• Challenger and Defender each roll a die 3 times
• Winner is whoever wins at least 2 of 3 rolls (ties favor Challenger)
• Winner takes 1 Gold Nugget from the loser and places it on any unoccupied Gold Chamber tile not occupied by either participant
• If Challenger wins, they also get a bonus move (roll 1 die, move that far)

Bat Challenge: Force another player to move.

• Same 3-roll resolution as Gold Challenge
• If Challenger wins, Defender must move to the Mine Entrance tile
• If Defender wins, Challenger must move to the Mine Entrance tile

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Required Gold Nuggets to win:

Players	Nuggets Needed
2	10
3-4	7
5-6	5

To win, collect the required number of Gold Nuggets and then exit the mine by moving to the Mine Entrance tile. You must have the required nuggets AND be on the Mine Entrance to win.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Secret Passages: Only accessible from tiles with crevice/puddle markings. Roll both dice: doubles or sum of 7 = teleport to any other Secret Passage entrance; otherwise move up to the lower die value or stay put
• Miners may pass each other at any time on any tile
• Miners may pass through the Mine Entrance at any time (exiting only counts when you have enough nuggets)
• Cavern tiles allow passage to any connecting tunnel with no restrictions
• If a tile cannot be placed legally, it goes back into a random stack and you draw another
• Other players may see tiles being drawn and suggest placements
• Gold Challenge token requirement: must have at least 1 Gold Nugget AND 1 Gold Challenge token
• Bat Challenge token requirement: must have at least 1 Bat Challenge token

Player Reference

Phase	Action	Details
Development Mining	Place 1 tile	Follow placement rules, 20 tiles total
Production Mining - Movement	Excavate & move 1	Draw tile, place, move 1
	Roll & move	Roll 1 die, move up to that number
	Secret Passage	Roll 2 dice: doubles/7 = teleport
Production Mining - Action	Collect Gold	Must be on Gold Chamber tile
	Challenge	Gold or Bat, best of 3 dice rolls

Win condition: Collect required nuggets + reach Mine Entrance