Homestake Mine (South Dakota)
Encyclopedia
Lead, South Dakota
Lead is a city in Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 3,124 at the 2010 census. Lead is located in western South Dakota, in the Black Hills near the Wyoming state line.-History:...
. Until it closed in 2002 it was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, producing more than 40 million ounces (approximately 1.25 million kilograms) of gold. The Homestake Mine is famous in scientific circles for being the site at which the solar neutrino problem
Solar neutrino problem
The solar neutrino problem was a major discrepancy between measurements of the numbers of neutrinos flowing through the Earth and theoretical models of the solar interior, lasting from the mid-1960s to about 2002...
was first discovered. This became known as the Homestake Experiment
Homestake Experiment
The Homestake experiment was an experiment headed by astrophysicists Raymond Davis, Jr. and John N. Bahcall in the late 1960s. Its purpose was to collect and count neutrinos emitted by nuclear fusion taking place in the Sun. Bahcall did the theoretical calculations and Davis designed the experiment...
. The deep underground laboratory was set up by Raymond Davis Jr.
Raymond Davis Jr.
Raymond Davis, Jr. was an American chemist, physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate.-Early life and education:...
in the mid 1960s to become the first experiment to observe solar neutrino
Solar neutrino
Electron neutrinos are produced in the Sun as a product of nuclear fusion. By far the largest fraction of neutrinos passing through the Earth are Solar neutrinos....
s.
On July 10, 2007, the mine was selected by the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
as the location for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory
Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory
The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, or DUSEL is a major project under consideration by the National Science Foundation. DUSEL will be a series of large laboratories, caverns, and cleanrooms serving the field of underground science...
(DUSEL), winning out over several candidates including the Henderson Mine
Henderson molybdenum mine
The Henderson molybdenum mine is a large underground molybdenum mine west of the town of Empire in Clear Creek County, Colorado, USA. The Henderson mine, which has produced molybdenum since 1976, is owned by Freeport-McMoRan....
near Empire, Colorado
Empire, Colorado
The historic Town of Empire is a Statutory Town located in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. The population was 355 at the U.S. Census 2000. The town is a former mining settlement that flourished during the Colorado Silver Boom in the late 19th century. It is located in the valley Clear...
. If completed, the DUSEL facility will continue the early work on ultra-low-background experiments on dark matter
Dark matter
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
and neutrinos, as well as providing a site for biology, geology, and mining research.
History
Black Hills Gold Rush
The Black Hills Gold Rush took place in Dakota Territory in the United States. It began in 1874 following the Custer Expedition and reached a peak in 1876-77.Rumors and poorly documented reports of gold in the Black Hills go back to the early 19th century...
. A trio of mining entrepreneurs, George Hearst
George Hearst
George Hearst was a wealthy American businessman and United States Senator, and the father of newspaperman William Randolph Hearst.-Early life and education:...
, Lloyd Tevis
Lloyd Tevis
Lloyd Tevis was a banker and capitalist who served as president of Wells Fargo & Company from 1872 to 1892.-Early life:...
, and James Ben Ali Haggin
James Ben Ali Haggin
James Ben Ali Haggin was an Turkish Americanattorney, rancher, investor and a major owner/breeder in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing...
, bought it from them for $70,000 the following year. George Hearst
George Hearst
George Hearst was a wealthy American businessman and United States Senator, and the father of newspaperman William Randolph Hearst.-Early life and education:...
arrived at the mine in October 1877, and took active control of the property. Hearst had to haul in all the mining equipment by wagons from the nearest railhead in Sidney, Nebraska
Sidney, Nebraska
Sidney is a city in Cheyenne County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 6,282 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cheyenne County.-History:The city was named for Sidney Dillon, a railroad attorney...
. Arthur De Wint Foote
Arthur De Wint Foote
Arthur De Wint Foote was a mining and civil engineer who built Foote's Crossing across the Middle Yuba River and Foote's Crossing Road , and designed the hydraulic wheel for the North Star Mine Powerhouse, now a California Historical Landmark.-Early years:Foote was born...
worked as an engineer. Despite the remote location, an 80-stamp mill began crushing Homestake ore in July 1878.
The partners sold shares in the Homestake Mining Company
Homestake Mining Company
The Homestake Mining Company was one of the largest gold mining businesses in the United States from the 19th century through the beginning of the 21st...
, and listed it on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
in 1879. The Homestake would become one of the longest-listed stocks in the history of the NYSE (Con Edison's original name was New York Gas Light and was listed in 1824).
Hearst consolidated and enlarged the Homestake property by fair and foul means. He bought out some adjacent claims, and secured others in the courts. A Hearst employee killed a man who refused to sell his claim, but was acquitted in court after all the witnesses disappeared. Hearst purchased newspapers in Deadwood
Deadwood, South Dakota
Deadwood is a city in South Dakota, United States, and the county seat of Lawrence County. It is named for the dead trees found in its gulch. The population was 1,270 according to a 2010 census...
to influence public opinion, and an opposing newspaper editor was beaten up on a Deadwood street. Hearst himself realized that he might be on the receiving end of violence, and wrote a letter to his partners asking them to provide for his family should he be murdered. In the end, however, Hearst was the one who walked out alive, and very rich.
The gold ore mined at Homestake was always low grade (less than one ounce per ton), but the body of ore was very large. Through 2001, the mine produced 39.8 million ounces of gold and 9 million ounces of silver. In terms of total production, the Lead mining district, of which the Homestake mine is the only producer, was the second-largest gold producer in the United States, after the Carlin district in Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
.
The Homestake mine ceased production at the end of 2001. Reasons included low gold prices, poor ore quality, and high costs. The Barrick Gold Corporation (which had merged with the Homestake Mining Company in mid-2001) agreed in early 2002 to keep dewatering the mine as DUSEL negotiations proceeded, but as progress was slow and maintaining the pumps and ventilation was costing $250,000 per month, switched them off on June 10, 2003 and closed the mine completely.
In June of 2009, researchers at Berkeley announced that Homestake would be reopened for scientific research on neutrinos and dark matter particles.
See also
- Raymond Davis Jr.Raymond Davis Jr.Raymond Davis, Jr. was an American chemist, physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate.-Early life and education:...
- Solar neutrino problemSolar neutrino problemThe solar neutrino problem was a major discrepancy between measurements of the numbers of neutrinos flowing through the Earth and theoretical models of the solar interior, lasting from the mid-1960s to about 2002...
- Colorado Mineral BeltColorado Mineral BeltThe Colorado Mineral Belt is an area with abundant ore deposits. The area stretches north-east from the La Plata Mountains in Southwestern Colorado to the Front Range near Boulder, Colorado...
, regarding the Henderson Mine
External links
- Homestake mine visitors center website
- Historical Deadwood Newspaper accounts of Homestake Mine
- Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake
- Homestake DUSEL
44.3561°N 103.7647°W