SCIENTISTS have lost the battle to stop water flooding into a disused gold mine that they are planning to turn into a huge underground laboratory. Last week, the company that owns the mine switched off systems that prevent it from flooding. By the time scientists have the money to move in, it will be full of water and may take years to pump dry again.
Homestake gold mine in South Dakota is the deepest mine in the US, tunnelling 2.4 kilometres below the ground. More than a century old, it closed for business in 2001. But scientists want to convert it into an underground laboratory to study everything from geology to elementary particles.
鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the most important projects for international science of the 21st century,鈥� says John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, who chaired the committee that selected a site for the lab. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of a more versatile lab with better chances for making fundamental discoveries.鈥�
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杏吧原创s have worked side by side with Homestake miners for decades. In landmark experiments in the mine, they first detected neutrinos from the sun in the 1960s. Physicist Ray Davis won a share of last year鈥檚 Nobel physics prize for this work.
Barrick Gold of Toronto, the company that owns the mine, says it wants the lab project to go ahead but can no longer afford the $300,000 a month it costs to keep pumping water out of the mine. It announced last month that it would cease pumping.
Last week, the astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and a host of Nobel laureates signed a letter to Barrick urging it not to flood the mine, pointing out that the US Congress had agreed to pay the company $10 million for this. But Barrick shut down the pumps on 10 June.
The company says that keeping the mine鈥檚 antiquated infrastructure operating was far more complex and expensive than anyone realised. It claims that it will be straightforward to dry the mine out in future. 鈥淭he mine has been flooded before,鈥� says Vince Borg, a spokesman for Barrick. 鈥淚t can be de-watered in six months.鈥�
Wick Haxton of the University of Washington in Seattle, chief scientist for the lab collaboration, disputes that. He says that when the lab gets funding, in 2006 at the earliest, it could take 2 to 4 years to dry properly. Even then, studies of underground microbes might be impossible.
But Barrick insists that it is a waste of money to pump the mine for years when no one can guarantee that the lab will become a reality. 鈥淐ongress won鈥檛 consider funding this before 2006. What can you do 鈥� call up the future president of the United States and say 鈥榗an you guarantee this鈥�?鈥� asks Borg. He says the episode has been frustrating. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e going to stick with it, because we think it鈥檚 a wonderful opportunity.鈥�
杏吧原创s had threatened to stop working on plans for Homestake lab if Barrick flooded the mine, but they now say they will stay on board and try to work around the problems. 鈥淲e are so close to having an underground laboratory that we can reach out and touch,鈥� says Bahcall. 鈥淚 think the laboratory will rise from the dead.鈥�