The Explosive Mines take the form of black iron balls.
Overview
A trio of Explosive Mines
In gameplay, the Explosive Mine can only be obtained at random from Item Boxes by Omega, Knuckles, Metal Sonic, Wave, and Zavok. As with most other Items, Metal Sonic can also use the Explosive Mine if he uses the Steal Item to steal it from the aforementioned users.
When used, iron balls will be dropped some distance ahead of the user's current location on all lanes that the user is not currently on. Touching an Explosive Mine with a playable character (including the user) will make them explode instantly, causing the character to lose Rings and drastically slow down. The Explosive Mine can be upgraded for each individual user by upgrading them to levels 4, 10 and 16, increasing the duration a hit opponent is slowed down for.
To avoid Explosive Mines, the player must either jump over them, or run in between them.
Explodes on impact causing considerable delays to opponent journey times. 
