NSF strikes gold

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has chosen a former South Dakota gold mine as the site for a multipurpose deep underground science and engineering laboratory.

Homestake, a former gold mine in the Black Hills near Lead, South Dakota, was selected from a proposal put forward to the NSF by the University of California at Berkeley. The site was one of four under consideration.

The underground research site will be named the Sanford Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (SUSEL), after T Denny Sanford, owner of the First Premier Bank and Premier Bankcard, who donated $70m to the project.

‘On behalf of the citizens of South Dakota, I encourage and welcome collaboration members from the other three proposed sites to join us in making the SUSEL a world class laboratory,’ said Mike Rounds, governor of South Dakota.

With more than 603.5km of tunnels and a depth of 2.45km, Homestake is the deepest mine in the US.