Ron Wheeler

The Board of Directors of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority held a conference-call meeting on Thursday, July 3, to name Ron Wheeler of Deadwood its next executive director. Wheeler succeeds Dave Snyder of Lead, who retired Monday.

“Ron Wheeler has exceptional management skills,” SDSTA Board Chairman Dave Bozied said.

Gov. Mike Rounds said the appointment will help keep on track the re-opening of the Homestake gold mine in Lead as the Sanford Underground Laboratory. “We’d like to thank Dave Snyder for his service to the Sanford Lab, and we welcome Ron Wheeler, recognizing he has big shoes to fill,” the Governor said. “Ron’s business background will serve us well as we continue to re-enter the Homestake Mine.”

Mr. Wheeler served as Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Transportation, and state Commissioner of Economic Development. He also has 28 years or experience running businesses and corporations. As president and CEO of Simon Telelect in Watertown, Mr. Wheeler he grew that manufacturing company from $60 million to $110 million in annual sales. He then served as president of the Access Division of Simon Engineering Plc. London, England, which had annual sales of $750 million and 3,500 employees in the U.K., Europe and Australia.

Since 2002, Mr. Wheeler has been president and CEO of BHL Capital Corp. in Rapid City.

The South Dakota Science and Technology Authority is re-opening the former Homestake gold mine in Lead as the Sanford Underground Laboratory., where deep labs will shield sensitive experiments from cosmic radiation. In addition, last year the National Science Foundation named Homestake the site for a proposed national underground laboratory.

Wheeler said Thursday he was looking forward to directing a project that could have an impact on South Dakota for decades. “I’m excited for this opportunity because of the project’s importance not just to the state but to the nation’s scientific community,” he said.

The waterfall at Gold Run Creek south of
East Main Street in Lead.

By Bill Harlan
Public Information Officer

Friday marked another milestone at the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake. “We’re pumping more water out of the mine than is coming in,” South Dakota Science and Technology Authority Executive Director Dave Snyder said.

Today (Monday), the water level in the so-called “deep pool” below the 4550 level continues to subside — but slowly. Just one of the four submersible pumps that will empty the deepest level of the mine is operating. Sanford Lab and Dynatec technicians continue to tweak and adjust the pumping and treatment systems in anticipation of faster pumping later this month

As predicted, mud in the steep channel from the Sanford Lab treatment plant to Gold Run Creek cleared in a few hours. (See the previous post.) In fact, our small waterfall on East Main Street (Highway 85) already is a tourist attraction.

Mike Chapin of Chapin, S.C, stopped to photograph the outfall
on Friday. Mike had already stopped at Bridal Veil Falls in
Spearfish Canyon.

Dave Snyder, executive director of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority,
celebrates the first water into Gold Run Creek with staffer Trudy Severson, who has been
with the SDSTA since the beginning of the Homestake lab project.

Bill Harlan
Public Information Officer

Lead, S.D. – The Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake released water into Gold Run Creek today. It was the first water discharged from the former gold mine since June 2003, when the underground pumps were shut off and Homestake was closed.

The water was released south of Highway 85 between Pluma and downtown Lead, at the same discharge point used by Homestake Mining Co. when the gold mine was operating.

The discharge meets the water-quality standards of the permit issued by the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The water is being run through filters at the Sanford Lab’s water treatment plant to remove suspended solids.

Water discharges in the coming days will be intermittent as technicians bring the water treatment plant and the pumping system online. Donovan Construction of Spearfish is the contractor working on the water treatment plant. Dynatec, the contractor reopening Homestake, is working on the pump system underground.

Homestake has been slowly filling since 2003. Over the past five years, water in Homestake has risen from the bottom of the mine, 8,000 feet underground, to 4,565 feet underground.

Last year the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority began re-opening Homestake as the Sanford Underground Lab. The National Science Foundation also has named Homestake the site of an even bigger national underground laboratory. Deep labs shield physics experiments from cosmic radiation, but geologists, biologists and other scientists also are planning experiments in the lab.

Homestake owner Barrick Gold Corp. donated the underground mine and surface property to the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority for use as a laboratory. The donation included Homestake’s water treatment plant, which the Sanford Lab is using.

The water flowing into Gold Run Creek is brown
because it’s washing sediment that has collected
in the channel over the past five years.
It will clear soon. (See the photo below.)

This is the discharge water coming directly out of the Sanford Lab water treatment plant.