National Science Foundation Selects Homestake Gold Mine as Deep Underground 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/...kes-gold.html]