Mr. Patrick Garver
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Barrick Gold
BCE Place, Canada Trust Tower
161 Bay Street, Suite 3700
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5J2S1

Dear Mr. Garver:

We are very grateful to Barrick Gold for considering the donation of the Homestake Mine to the state of South Dakota, for use as a deep underground science laboratory. As the recent NSF Site Panel report (5/28/03) makes clear, Homestake is a national treasure, with the potential to become the world's finest deep underground laboratory for basic research in physics, earth science, and geomicrobiology.

The NSF panel expressed the unanimous view that continued pumping is important to ensure mine stability, avoidance of equipment replacement or damage, consistency with existing operating approvals, and preservation of the rock mass environment important to the proposed geomicrobiology program. Flooding could also delay DUSEL for two to three years, while dewatering and reconstruction is completed.

As senior members of the science community, we ask Barrick to find a way to continue pumping in the Homestake Mine. We urge Barrick consider accepting the funding that Congress has appropriated for this purpose.

Thank you for considering our letter.

Sincerely,

Hans Bethe, Cornell University
James Cronin, University of Chicago
Val Fitch, Princeton University
Jerome Friedman, MIT
Riccardo Giacconi, Associated Universities, Inc.
Sheldon Glashow, Boston University
Stephen Hawking, Cambridge University
Russell Hulse, Princeton
T. D. Lee, Columbia University
Leon Lederman, FermiLab
Arno Penzias, Lucent Technologies
Marty Perl, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Norman Ramsey, Harvard University
Burton Richter, Stanford Kinear Accelerator Center
Jack Steinberger, CERN
Charles Townes, University of California
Steven Weinberg, University of Texas

cc: Board of Directors, Barrick Gold
Governor Mike Rounds
Dr. Joseph Dehmer