Soudan Underground Mine

Useful Information

Location:	At Soudan. U.S. Highway 169 to Soudan, follow the signs. (47°49'8.73"N, 92°14'34.75"W)
Open:	Historical tour: 26-MAY to SEP daily 10-16, on the hour. High energy physics lab tour: call for schedule and availability. [2003]
Fee:	Historical tour: Adults $ 7, Children (5-12) $ 5. High energy physics lab tour: Adults $ 7, Children (5-12) $ 5. Both: Adults $ 12, Children (5-12) $ 5. [2003]
Classification:	Iron Mine, Soudan Iron Formation.
Light:	electric.
Dimension:
Guided tours:	Historical tour: D=75min. High energy physics lab tour: D=75min.
Bibliography:
Address:	Soudan Underground Mine, P.O. Box 335, Soudan, MN 55782, Tel: +1-218-753-2245. E-mail: Special in-depth tours, guided by physicists, Eileen Amos, Tel: +1-218-753-6611.
Last update:	$Date: 2008/07/01 20:31:42 $

History

Description

Soudan Underground Mine was operated to mine the famous Soudan Iron Formation. This is part of the Iron Range. Soudan is located in Vermilion Range and is the oldest and deepest iron mine in Minnesota.

During its 80 years of operation about 15.5 million tons of ore were removed from the Soudan Mine. The mining started in seven open pits. But after some time the mine suffered frequent accidents from falling rocks. To avoid that the operations were moved underground in the 1890s. Technological progress and a changing economy made the mining unprofitable and so all operations ended in 1962.

The mining tour shows adits of the old iron mining. The visitors get hard hats and then journey down 730m in an elevator called "the cage". The tour continues with a ride on a rail car on the 27th level. This mining tour is completed by several related buildings on the surface, the dry house (1925), drill shop (1917), crusher house (1904) and engine house (1901).

A second tour concentrates on the High Energy Physics Lab at the bottom of the mine. This lab was built about 800m deep under the mine after the mining ended. This cavern is not a former part of the mine, but was built using modern underground mining methods right for this purpose. The enormous layer of rocks and iron ore filters most of the cosmic rays, allowing to conduct sensitive experimants which are impossible on the surface. The lab operated the Soudan 2 Proton Decay experiment from 1989-2001, with the goal to observe the decay of a proton. This goal was not achieved, but much valuable data was collected, leading to the MINOS experiment. MINOS stands for Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, the attempt to measure the mass of particles called neutrinos, which are smaller than the nuclei of atoms. A third big experiment at the lab is Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CMDS), the direct detection of dark matter particles other than neutrinos. While Proton Decay is stopped, the two other experiments are under construction now.

See also

• Search Google for "Soudan Underground Mine"
• Google Earth
• Soudan Underground Mine official site by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
• Soudan Mine at the National Register of Historic Sites (NRHS).
• The Soudan Underground Laboratory at the University of Minnesota.
• Cryogenic Dark Matter Search Homepage at Berkeley.
• University of Minnesota CDMS Page
• Do Protons Decay?, an article by the Argonne National Laboratory.
• The Minos Mural Project, a page about a big mural created by the artist Joseph Gianetti in the underground laboratory.

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