Deep underground, Colorado builds a quantum future

Inside a mountain in Idaho Springs, CO, a century-old mine is taking on a second life. The Edgar Experimental Mine (EEM), once a key producer of valuable ore, now trains engineers and soon may host quantum experiments that could reshape computing. Edgar began as a working underground operation where miners extracted ore from narrow veins deep in the rock. What once produced silver, lead and gold now generates something less visible.In 1921, the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) transformed the mine into an educational facility for mining students, preserving the underground workings as a hands-on training environment. More than a century later, the same tunnels built for extraction are supporting a different kind of industry. Instead of chasing mineral deposits, researchers are using the mine’s depth to study quantum systems, particle physics and train engineering students. Today, a growing network of research laboratories operate inside Edgar. Among them, a new quantum facility is taking shape, where the Colorado Underground Research Institute (CURIE) will turn the mine into a hub for high-scale physics research. The development of the new underground facilities would not have been possible without the hard work of the CSM’s mining engineering department. Over the course of a year, the department worked tirelessly to create a suitable space for future experiments. “The mining engineering department provided the mining expertise, planning and student labor necessary to excavate and prepare the underground spaces required for the quantum laboratory,” said Lee Fronapfel, mine manager of the Edgar Experimental Mine. That work included drill-and-blast excavation, ground support installation, shotcrete application, concrete floor placement, ventilation systems and electrical infrastructure, among other necessary adjustments. “To support quantum research activities, larger underground excavations were created in areas of the mine with the greatest depth of rock cover,” Fronapfel said. “These locations were selected to help minimize environmental interference and provide the stable underground conditions required for sensitive quantum experiments.” Unusual coordination between physicists and mining personnel occurred. Two fields that rarely intersect worked together to create an underground environment capable of tackling some of science’s most complex questions. Now, these departments collaborate closely to ensure all work is carried out effectively. “Because the laboratories are located in relatively isolated areas of the mine, vibration and noise impacts are generally limited,” said Fronapfel. “However, occasional coordination is required to manage activities that could affect sensitive experiments. This is handled through direct communication between mine personnel and quantum researchers.” Like mining professionals, quantum researchers working underground received appropriate safety training. Prior to entering the mine, EEM personnel ensured that all researchers complied with U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) requirements and completed MSHA Part 48 training.Assistant professor of physics Wouter Van De Pontseele noticed an uptick in interest by mining students who took part in the laboratory excavation. “When they realized what they were building, many of them wanted to know how to get involved in the physics,” said Van De Pontseele. “That’s CURIE in a nutshell — two disciplines that have never really talked to each other suddenly finding they have a lot to say.” So, what makes underground operations at EEM the most viable kind for quantum research?Roughly 200 m (656 ft) of overburden sit above the tunnels of EEM, a thickness that reduces cosmic radiation, particularly muons, by a significant factor compared to the surface. “At the surface, a muon — a heavy charged particle produced when cosmic rays hit the upper atmosphere — passes through a device roughly once per second,” said Van De Pontseele. “Underground at Edgar, that drops to approximately once every 15 minutes: a 700-fold reduction. Neutron backgrounds are expected to be roughly 100 times lower as well.” For quantum devices, that reduction is not a marginal gain. It is the difference between usable data and noise. According to Van De Pontseele, quantum computers rely on superconducting qubits that exist in fragile states. When high-energy particles strike them, they generate quasiparticles that disrupt those states and introduce correlated errors across multiple qubits. Standard error correction struggles with that kind of failure. But going underground removes a direct source of those disruptions, addressing a major problem faced by quantum researchers. The mine also offers advantages that go beyond radiation shielding. Its rock maintains a steady temperature near 12 °C (54 °F) year-round and its vibration profile remains low compared to urban surface environments. There are no highways overhead, no heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems embedded in walls and minimal seismic interference from nearby roads. For experiments sensitive to mechanical disturbances, that quiet matters. Despite being a more ideal environment for quantum, the underground research facilities still needed to be fitted before conducting research. “Underground labs are not just caves you plug refrigerators into — there are some unusual engineering constraints that forced creative solutions,” said Van De Pontseele. This included stabilizing the surrounding rock, shaping the space to be tall enough and wide enough to provide enough physical clearance, limiting liquid cryogens with closed-cycle dilution refrigerators and installing radon-mitigating barriers. This work was essential for CURIE, an underground research facility housed inside the EEM. Named after Marie Curie, a prominent figure in the science community, CURIE serves to support research that cannot be easily conducted in traditional surface laboratories. This includes quantum information science, subatomic physics and quantum sensing. CURIE is not a single room. It is a network of sites distributed through the EEM. Site 0, an existing area known as the Bureau of Mines Stope, served as an early measurement point. Site 1, now nicknamed the “Subatomic Particle Hideout,” has become a working research space where graduate students map environmental conditions underground. The quantum laboratory, known as Cryolab #1 or originally as site 2, sits at the center of CURIE’s plan. This site, sitting on the boundary of particle physics and quantum technology, will host the quantum experiments. The school is in the process of installing ventilation, electrical power and radon-mitigating layers for the laboratory. By late 2026, the team aims to have a modular cleanroom in place, ready to host cryogenic equipment.Additional laboratories are planned near site 1. These may include more cryogenic laboratories but will mostly focus on collaborative projects through the Elevate Quantum system. Part of what makes CURIE so special is its role in the future of quantum research. CURIE is a central node in Elevate Quantum, a regional consortium that includes more than 150 organizations across Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. In 2024, the initiative secured $127 million in federal and state funding to expand the U.S. quantum ecosystem. The U.S. quantum industry is currently one of the fastest-growing industries, projected to reach $170 billion by 2040. Colorado alone has become a national center for quantum research. The state has boasted an 80 percent growth rate in the sector, with more than 30 quantum companies employing more than 3,000 workers. Having a central research site in Idaho Springs is crucial for new discoveries. Once fully operational, both academic institutions and Elevate Quantum member companies will be able to use CURIE’s facilities. Yet, active collaborations within the laboratories are already taking place. These include a Japanese muon tomography company applying particle-detection techniques to industrial imaging; Fieldline, a local Colorado startup conducting ongoing magnetic field measurements at the site; and Maybell Quantum Industries, a Denver-based company that already tests and ships dilution refrigerators at the Labriola Innovation Hub on the CSM campus. According to Van De Pontseele, there are only about three shallow underground laboratories currently operating in the United States, with CURIE occupying a distinctive niche. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-operated facilities at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are shallower than CURIE and lack horizontal tunnel access. At these facilities, driving equipment straight in at ground level is nearly impossible. Deep sites like the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, at the former Homestake Gold Mine, offer extensive cosmic shielding and are suitable for long-duration, rare-event physics experiments, but require extensive advance planning, long commitments and high operational costs. “CURIE’s position — approximately 200 meters of rock overburden, horizontal access, university-owned, highly flexible — is a specific sweet spot,” said Van De Pontseele. “For quantum technology experiments, which need a low-cosmic-ray environment but don’t necessarily need extreme depth, we may be exactly deep enough. And because CSM owns Edgar outright, the facility can be opened to both academic and industry collaborators in ways that federally operated labs simply cannot.” More than five years ago CSM launched one of the nation’s first quantum engineering master’s programs in the country. Now, the university plans to introduce a bachelor of science degree in quantum systems engineering, the first undergraduate degree of its kind in the United States. The first enrollment of the program will take place in the fall of 2026, with capacity limited by laboratory space. Students will have the opportunity to take a laboratory course co-developed by industry partners, and through programs like Vertically Integrated Projects in the Edgar Research Mine (VIPER), undergraduates can work on live research projects underground. Due to demand in quantum science, CSM is strengthening its quantum faculty. However, the school is waiting to assess the initial interest in the program starting in the fall of 2027 before making any further changes. “Similar to the workforce gap that has historically defined mining engineering, the quantum industry is building faster than universities have trained people to fill it,” said Van De Pontseele. Testing ground for projects The quantum laboratory represents only one part of EEM’s underground research portfolio. Over time, the mine has evolved into a testing ground for projects that span mining, defense, robotics, petroleum engineering and bioscience. Among the existing research facilities is Flash Radiography Imaging for Energetic Samples (FRIES), which studies energetic materials using radiography imaging techniques. Another laboratory, UMPIRE, serves as a testing and evaluation platform for weapons performance and repeatability research. Other projects focus more directly on mining and subsurface engineering. The Apache Drill Project explores autonomous core drilling systems and technologies tied to future space resource extraction. The 3-D Explosives Lab studies blasting applications, while the Jennmar Bolt Research Facility evaluates new ground-support systems under varying rock mass conditions. Additional programs test underground robotics, drones and mapping technologies. Researchers are studying lidar scanning systems, machine tracking technologies and autonomous tunnel traversal methods. Other laboratories investigate high-voltage electrical fracturing techniques for oil and natural gas applications, corrosion in petroleum pipelines and microbiological activity in underground water systems. EEM is not the only mine to find a second life, but its integration stands out. Many former mines host single-purpose research projects or storage facilities but EEM combines education with applied research.The question now is whether its quantum model can be scaled. “We don’t yet know whether underground labs will be a permanent home for quantum computers or a transitional tool,” said Van De Pontseele. “The optimistic near-term scenario: the clean underground environment lets us isolate exactly which noise sources limit coherence, then we develop targeted hardware solutions that can be deployed back at the surface. The underground lab becomes a precision diagnostic tool — the way particle accelerators once illuminated fundamental physics and then spawned MRI machines and cancer treatments,” he noted. “The longer-term possibility: high-fidelity quantum processing units remain underground as a practical matter, while other types of quantum devices operate at the surface. The internet runs on distributed infrastructure; there’s no fundamental reason a fault-tolerant quantum processor needs to be in your data center. It might be a final solution, or an important step in the process. We’re running the experiments to find out,” he added. The quantum laboratory at EEM will not deliver immediate breakthroughs. Researchers expect years of incremental progress, but a central goal remains: to understand how environmental noise affects quantum devices and develop methods to control it. Funding continuity remains a key risk for quantum discoveries. CURIE depends on sustained support from federal agencies, industry partners and university leadership. Having a diverse partnership base helps CURIE build resilience. "The science is sound, the infrastructure is real, and the mountain isn’t going anywhere,” said Van De Pontseele. Not every mine offers the same geological stability or accessibility that EEM does. Still, the concept holds appeal. As mining operations close across the country, they leave behind underground spaces that could support new industries. Quantum research is one candidate. Data storage, energy systems and other technologies may follow.

Deep underground, Colorado builds a quantum future

Authored by: Carrie Smith

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