The University of California at Berkeley has struck the mother lode in its bid to build a research laboratory deep underground. The National Science Foundation selected today a proposal by a Berkeley team to produce a design for a deep lab in a former gold mine beneath the Black Hills of South Dakota. The Berkeley group was competing against three teams that had sunk their hopes into other sites.

The underground facility, to be built in the old Homestake mine, in Lead, S.D., could be used to study dark matter, particle physics, and the unusual microbes that thrive far below the earth’s surface, the science foundation said. Even though the project will be led by Berkeley, academic leaders in South Dakota expect the lab to be an educational bonanza for the state.

“The Homestake lab will significantly strengthen South Dakota’s ability to stimulate cutting-edge research and create new knowledge,” said Robert T. Tad Perry, executive director of the South Dakota Board of Regents, in a written statement. —Richard Monastersky