Advanced Science Sees Gold in South Dakota Mine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a sort of reverse alchemy, physicists are seeking to transform America's deepest gold mine from a money pit into a treasure trove for advanced science.

If the plan succeeds, a mile and a half down the historic but soon-to-be-defunct Homestake Mine in South Dakota is where big dollars will advance human knowledge of the smallest sub-atomic matter and give a cash-strapped state an economic shot in the arm.

The newly formed National Consortium of Underground Science hopes to put the world's largest particle physics lab in the hole before California-based Homestake Mining Co. switches off the drills, lights and pumps late this year and lets the costly 125-year-old mine fill with water.

It would be the mother lode, in terms of jobs for South Dakota's impoverished Black Hills region.

``Some people have been quoted as calling this the 'Cape Canaveral of physics' or the 'next Los Alamos,''' said Jay Carson, aide to Tom Daschle, the senior U.S. Senator from South Dakota who is striving to sell the project in Washington.

Big Science Mine Field In Washington

Daschle said through his aide: ``We're guardedly optimistic about the prospects of the lab coming to and being completed at the Homestake mine.''

But budget politics threaten the lab because it will cost some $250 million to turn this artifact of the nation's pioneer economy into a Mecca for cutting-edge PhDs.

That price tag nevertheless presents a far smaller target to spending foes than the Texas superconducting super collider, an $11 billion atom smasher terminated eight years ago after $2 billion had been lavished on the county sized contraption.

Proponents say $250 million is a bargain compared to the cost of burrowing 7,500 feet into virgin rock -- about the only place where sensitive experiments on specks like neutrinos can be shielded from cosmic rays and other barely measurable disturbances.

Even more so since researchers from many fields could share the lab to explore the mysteries of the universe -- search for dark matter, understand supernovae, study radioactivity, trace little-understood ground water movements and hunt for new life forms that exist with no sunlight.

The subterranean platform will also make it easier to detect violations of the global nuclear test ban.

Something For Everyone

``The remarkable thing about the National Underground Laboratory is that it addresses problems in nuclear physics, particle physics, biology, materials science and geophysics,'' said physicist John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.

Bahcall is chairman of the National Underground Laboratory Committee, charged by the National Science Foundation (news - web sites) to study proposals and recommend a location.

``I have to say that for the 40 years now that I've been associated with large national projects, this one has more enthusiasm and more immediately widespread approval than any other than I've been associated with,'' he said.

The proposed lab would also feature an underground visitors center, counting on 100,000 tourists a year.

But the hype has yet to infect the new administration, now haggling with Congress over its pledged tax and spending cuts. The White House budget reduced National Science Foundation funding and specified no new starts of major projects in 2002.

High Tech Jobs

The lab would direct federal dollars into depressed South Dakota and, according to the Rapid City Journal, provide employment for hundreds and a long-term future for tiny Lead, helping the town recover from the loss of its major employer.

The Homestake location has the advantage of being in a state eligible for some federal funding because of its lack of money for engineering and science technology, according to Bahcall.

At the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Charles Kliche, director of mining engineering, was active in boosting nearby Homestake. His school now stands to manage the facility, in conjunction with major universities in and outside the state.

``We helped spearhead the effort and the committee that was looking at where to locate the facility has chosen Homestake,'' Kliche said. ``Now we just need funding from Congress.''

The South Dakota site is preferred over California rival Mount San Jacinto near Palm Springs. Its depth provides the lowest background levels of interference from the cosmos and Homestake has housed a small version of the lab for decades.

``It exits and one could move science into the laboratory in six months to a year after it being funded,'' Professor Bahcall said. ``It would take at lease five years to do that at San Jacinto.''

Bahcall said it is well worth building a lab to conduct American experiments in particle physics -- now done in Japan, Russia, Finland and Italy -- if the facility could be the world showpiece.

Homestake Mining Posterity Minded

As for Homestake Mining, the longest continually listed company on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) hopes it has a shot at a good citizenship award.

The company has already donated the lease on a smaller mine being closed in California for use as a nature preserve and environmental research station.

``We feel that for mining to continue to get approval as something society allows in North America, we better be thinking about the legacy that we leave behind at each mine,'' said Homestake chief executive Jack Thompson.

Given legal fees, Thompson said the company will not benefit financially from turning over Homestake's 600 miles of tunnels and excavations, which it can no longer afford to operate in an era of low bullion prices.

Homestake was a symbol of the 19th century gold rush that funded America's westward expansion. It may yet become synonymous with the frontiers of 21st century science.

But before the mine can get a new lease on life, the company and the state of South Dakota insist on getting legal protection because of residual hazards from chemicals used in both mining and some experiments to be done in the lab.

``We feel very confident that putting this National Science Foundation lab in the Homestake Mine is a win-win for the economy and the environment and we're taking every precautionary step that we can to make sure that that's true,'' Daschle said.

Daschle is currently sponsoring indemnification legislation in Congress against liability for both parties.