Homestake Mining Co. extracted nearly 7 million feet of solid-rock core samples during decades of exploration for gold. Crews used diamond-bit drills to extract the slender, cylindrical rock cores, most of which are long discarded. However, Homestake did donate 396,000 feet of surviving core – 75 miles' worth – to the Sanford Underground Laboratory.
The core archive is a unique scientific resource and a priceless window into 9 cubic miles of underground real estate. "This was a world renown mine," former Homestake Chief Geologist Kathy Hart says. "Every geology student studies it."
LEAD, S.D. -- Pumping water has begun from the deepest levels of the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake.
Earlier this month, at a control panel 5,000 feet underground, Sanford Lab Facilities Technician Norm Mason pushed a button that started the new deep-water system. Water is being pumped in stages from 7,800 feet underground to the lab's water treatment plant on the surface.
"It's kind of exciting," Underground Operations Foreman Jack Stratton said. "We're already seeing a change." The first week of deep-water pumping dropped the water level 42 feet, to 5,090 feet underground.
The water level at the Sanford Lab had been kept static since late March -- between 5,048 and 5,126 feet underground -- while Sanford Lab technicians and Denver, Colo., contractor Hydro Resources installed the bigger, deeper pumping system.
Lead, S.D. -- Dark matter afficianados won't want to miss the Sanford Underground Laboratory's Fourth of July Parade float. It's a salute to the Large Underground Xenon Detector, which will search for dark matter at the 4,850-foot level of the Sanford Lab.
To ensure the technical accuracy of this r…
Monday, July 5; 9 p.m. CDT (8 p.m. MDT) Sanford Lab also on S.D. Public Radio's "Innovation"
LEAD, S.D. -- Gov. Mike Rounds will take television viewers a mile underground to visit with scientists and technicians re-opening the former Homestake gold mine in Lead as a national laboratory.
The Governor is the host of -- "Deep Science: the vision for underground research at Homestake" --Â a 30-minute video that will air on South Dakota Public Television on Monday, July 5, at 9 p.m. CDT (8 p.m. MDT). Viewers will join the Governor for a look at the kinds of research that physicists, geologists and biologists hope to do at South Dakota's first national laboratory.
July 10 event draws 600-plus
Lead, S.D. -- Neutrino Day drew about 550 people to the Yates Dry and the Yates Shaft hoist room on a Saturday morning.
Add 65 people for the standing-room-only crowd at Friday’s night’s Science Cafe at the Stampmill and about 30 for an art-and-science lec…
