Northeast Minnesota Mine Lab Loses Key Research Project

SOUDAN -- The future appears uncertain for an underground mine lab in northeastern Minnesota after its signature experiment recorded its final data in late June.

Research projects are shutting down at the Soudan Underground Mine. The University of Minnesota is moving out of the mine. Since 2003, researchers have used an enormous detector a half-mile underground to better understand subatomic particles known as neutrinos. But the research is shifting to newer, deeper labs in Canada and South Dakota.

The mine is located at the Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park. Summer tours of the mine will continue, but tours of the physics lab will end this fall.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has hired a consultant to help look for new tenants for the lab.