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Monday, 26th October 2009 (408 views)

The University of California (UC) Berkeley has secured $30 million (£18.3 million) in funding from the National Science Foundation to help transform a former gold mine into the world's deepest laboratory.

Scientists have selected the Homestake gold mine in South Dakota to be used for a variety of experiments that require shielding from "background" noise such as cosmic rays or local radioactivity, news service KCBS reports.

A team from the university now hope to set up lab spaces at "unprecedented depths" to study areas of science such as geomicrobiology, which looks at the behaviour of organisms that live deep below the surface of the earth.

UC Berkeley adjunct professor of physics and principal investigator for the project said the university hopes to have a preliminary design for the site by 2011, with construction set to begin by 2013.

The Homestake mine was one of the first enterprises associated with the 1876 Black Hills Gold Rush in what was the Dakota Territory.

Gold was mined at the site for 125 years.

 

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