THE deepest mysteries of the universe may be about to be discovered 1,100 metres below the North-East coast.

A new £3.1m laboratory buried at the furthest reaches of Europe's deepest mine, off Boulby, on the east Cleveland coast, was opened yesterday.

Science Minister Lord Sainsbury descended the potash and salt mine to perform the ceremony and meet some of the world's leading scientists.

As he talked to them in the 42F heat he was told that they could be about to discover one of the last great mysteries of the universe.

British scientists in the Dark Matter Collaboration group are hoping to prove the existence of the particles which are thought to make up 90 per cent of the matter which bind the universe together.

The scientists, who are in a race with three other leading groups of researchers across the world, chose Boulby mine for their research in 1989.

Yesterday, they explained that the deep mine is possibly the best site in the world for the research because it is deep enough to shelter experiments from cosmic rays and the purity of the salt rock means there is very low natural radioactivity.

Advances in research by the team of scientists meant that in 2000 the Department for Trade and Industry agreed to fund the laboratory in which experiments are already taking place.

Tim Sumner is head of the four-university member team of scientists working in the mine.

He said: "It's all a far cry from when I first came down here in 1989 when it was actually quite dangerous.

"We believe have the best detection equipment in the world, but this will make us even more effective."