National Science Foundation Selects Homestake Gold Mine as DeepUnderground Science Site (Forwarded)

Communications Department
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

News Contact:
Lynn Yarris, (510) 486-5375

Scientific Contact:
Kevin Lesko, (510) 486-7731

July 10, 2007

Homestake Strikes Gold Again

NSF Selects Former South Dakota Gold Mine as Deep Underground Science Site

BERKELEY, CA -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has chosen
Homestake, a former gold mine in the Black Hills, near Lead, South Dakota,
as the site for a multipurpose deep underground science and engineering
laboratory. The proposal, chosen from a field of four finalists, was
prepared by a multi-institutional collaboration of researchers and
submitted to an NSF site selection panel through the University of
California (UC) at Berkeley. Leading the "Homestake Collaboration" was
Kevin Lesko, a physicist who holds a joint appointment with UC Berkeley
and the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(Berkeley Lab).

"This is a great event for science and engineering," said Lesko. "Clearly
the NSF site selection committee members did their homework and we owe
them a tremendous debt of gratitude for all their deliberations, effort
and dedication. The Homestake Collaboration still has a lot of work in
front of us before construction and we will benefit greatly from the
combined efforts of all the other collaborations that competed for the
site."

In recognition of a $70 million gift for the Homestake effort from T.
Denny Sanford, owner of the First Premier Bank and Premier Bankcard Inc.,
and one of the country's top philanthropists, the new deep underground
research facility will be named the Sanford Underground Science and
Engineering Laboratory (SUSEL).

Governor Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a strong supporter of the effort to
convert Homestake into a research facility, released a statement in
response to the NSF announcement which read in part:

"The NSF site selection process was rigorous and fair. On behalf of the
citizens of South Dakota, Dr. Lesko and I encourage and welcome
collaboration members from the other three (proposed) sites to join with
us in making the Sanford Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory a
world class laboratory. My hope is that the tremendous talent and wealth
of ideas proposed by all of the scientists will come together for the
advancement of science.

"I also thank Mr. T. Denny Sanford for his generous donation of $70
million which will enable the Sanford Underground Science and Engineering
Laboratory at Homestake to provide space for early experimental programs
as well as the initiation of a substantial education effort."

Berkeley Lab has been one of the principal institutes involved in the
scientific proposal of the Homestake Collaboration. Speaking on behalf of
Berkeley Lab in response to the announcement was James Symons, director of
the Lab's Nuclear Science Division.

"At Berkeley Lab, we have been working on the Homestake proposal for over
six years and are delighted that the NSF's comprehensive review process
has selected Homestake as the site of a deep underground lab in the United
States. The scientific opportunities offered by the Homestake site are
first rate. We're excited at using the scientific, educational and
technical resources of Berkeley Lab to assist in development of our new
sister laboratory in South Dakota. These opportunities build on the
historic connections between UC Berkeley, the Hearst family and the
Homestake mine, and between Berkeley Lab and the state of South Dakota,
which was the birthplace of our founder, Ernest O. Lawrence. We look
forward to renewing the relationship with Homestake in the 21st century."

The Need to go Deep

A number of scientific investigations require an underground environment
-- the deeper the better. For example, there are questions important to
the fields of astrophysics and physics that cannot be answered unless
experiments are shielded from cosmic rays and other background radiation
by thousands of feet of rock. Homestake is the deepest mine in the United
States, reaching a depth of more than 8,000 feet. With over 375 miles of
existing tunnels, it is ideally suited for conversion into a scientific
research facility.

"The Homestake mine is a vast site capable of hosting a comprehensive
suite of experiments in all major fields of science, including low
background physics experiments and particle and nuclear physics
experiments that require very large detectors," said Lesko. "The site can
simultaneously host multidisciplinary deep sub-surface studies in
geosciences, geoengineering and microbiology."

The Homestake proposal calls for two major deep underground facility
levels. One level will serve research operating from the surface on down
to 4,850 feet. Construction of the "Laboratory at 4850" will entail
modification of an existing scientific site and preparation of new
experimental chambers. The other facility is planned for the 7,400 foot
depth level. A large network of existing caverns, drifts, ramps and
boreholes will serve as the basis for the future construction of this
second level over the next 30 years.

"Our plans also include a near surface facility with drive-in access for
experiments that require only modest shielding," said Lesko. "In addition,
potential users have requested access to depth levels at 2,000, 4,100 and
8,000 feet. Our task is to tailor the Homestake site for science access
and reduce its foot-print to only the areas of greatest scientific
interest."

Science at Homestake-SUSEL

Prominent among the experiments that require the ultra-low backgrounds
realized at great depths are studies of the elusive, ghostlike sub-atomic
particles known as neutrinos.

In recent years, experiments at other underground neutrino laboratories
have confirmed that the neutrino, once thought to be a massless particle,
does indeed have a small amount of mass, and that the three families of
neutrinos transform, or oscillate, between families. Like all great
discoveries, this finding has raised new questions. A next generation of
neutrino experiments at the much greater depths of Homestake should help
provide answers.

"For example, detection of neutrinoless double beta decay, which can be
done at Homestake's SUSEL, is the only way to determine whether neutrinos
are their own anti-particle," said Lesko, a veteran neutrino researcher
with Berkeley Lab's Nuclear Science Division.

To fully understand the neutrino, Lesko said beams of neutrinos
originating from Fermilab, outside of Chicago, can be sent through nearly
a thousand miles of rock to large detectors in Homestake. These detectors
will search for evidence of a rare physical process, known as "leptonic CP
violation," that may help explain why the universe is dominated by matter
rather than anti-matter.

"These same detectors could also be used to search for nucleon decay, a
long sought signal of Grand Unified Theories," Lesko said.

Other astrophysical research planned for SUSEL include studies of nuclear
astrophysics, future generation gravity wave detectors, geoneutrino and
solar neutrino experiments.

Scientists at SUSEL will also get a closer than ever look at the earth's
crust and new opportunities for monitoring the movement of groundwater. In
addition, they will be able to examine the unique biochemistry of
organisms that thrive under heat and pressure conditions which would be
deadly to surface dwellers. Carbon sequestration efforts -- the idea of
safely burying global warming gases like carbon dioxide underground --
should also receive a significant boost.

Said Joseph Wang, a scientist with Berkeley Lab's Earth Sciences Division,
and a senior Homestake proposal investigator, "A flag-ship earth science
experiment at SUSEL could involve geomicrobiology searches for the limits
of, extent of, and details of life in the underground. These
investigations would probe fundamental questions at the crossroads of
biology and geology, including whether there are new or very old forms of
life underground."

Added Lesko, "Experiments at SUSEL will also open entire new avenues for
basic engineering studies that could extend our understanding of rock
properties, create and stabilize future excavations, and develop new
technologies and techniques to create safer underground environments."

History of the Homestake Proposal

Homestake was the site of the single largest gold deposit ever found in
the Western Hemisphere. Mining operations, which began in 1876 and
continued until 2001, yielded 40 million ounces of gold. In 1965, nuclear
physicist Raymond Davis, of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), set up
the world's first solar neutrino detector at the 4,850 foot depth level,
and conducted the research that won him a share of the 2002 Nobel Prize in
physics.

Two years after mining operations ceased, Governor Rounds established a
project to oversee transfer of the Homestake property from Barrick Gold
Corporation, which had earlier merged with the Homestake Mining Company,
with the ultimate goal of converting the mine into a deep underground
science and engineering laboratory.

In 2004, at the urging of the Governor, the South Dakota legislature
created the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority to oversee the
Homestake conversion project and subsequently allocated $35 million for
the effort. In addition, a $10 million federal Housing and Urban
Development grant was secured for rehabilitating the mine's
infrastructure. This HUD grant is now being used for reopening the shafts
and installing pumping equipment to remove water from the lower levels.

In 2004, Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley organized the Homestake
Collaboration, with Lesko at the helm. Bill Roggenthen, professor of
geology and geological engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and
Technology, became the Homestake Collaboration's co-principal
investigator.

In his statement following the NSF announcement, Governor Rounds said, "We
must all extend our deep appreciation to Barrick Gold Corporation and
Homestake Mining Company for generously donating the mine, surface
buildings and inventory. I also want to publicly thank the NSF for its
thorough selection process and the Homestake Collaboration scientists for
the tremendous amount of time and talent invested in making Homestake's
case."

In addition to Lesko and Wang, Berkeley Lab researchers and staff who
contributed to the successful Homestake proposal include Yuen-dat Chan,
Nikolai Tolich, and Alan Poon of the Nuclear Science Division; Hitoshi
Murayama, Michael Barnett, Stewart Loken and William Chinowsky from the
Physics Division; Mark Conrad, Terry Hazen, Rohit Salve, and Eric
Sonnenthal of the Earth Sciences Division; Dick DiGennaro, the Homestake
Project Manager from Berkeley Lab's Engineering Division, and Dianna
Jacobs from the Project Management Office.

Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in
Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is
managed by the University of California. Visit our Website at www.lbl.gov
..

Additional Information

* To read the NSF news release announcing the Homestake selection visit
the Website at:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.js...=NSF&from=news
* For more information about the Homestake proposal visit the Website at:
http://www.lbl.gov/nsd/homestake/
* For more information about SUSEL, visit the Website at:
http://www.sanfordlaboratoryathomestake.org/
* To read the statement of South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds in its
entirety, visit the Website at:
http://www.state.sd.us/

[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/...ikes-gold.html ]