Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury, descended 1,100 metres into Europe's deepest mine today to open a refurbished laboratory dedicated to discovering what the universe is made of.

The Boulby Underground Laboratory for Dark Matter Research, in Cleveland, is dedicated to searching for evidence of the dark matter which scientists believe may make up at least 90 per cent of the universe.

It has recently been upgraded with a #3.1m grant from the DTI's Joint Infrastructure Fund, including a new building on the surface and new underground laboratory facilities.

Lord Sainsbury said: "The first detection of dark matter would be a wonderful coup for Boulby, and I wish the scientists here every success.

"The forthcoming years promise to be an exciting time for those searching for dark matter and I am very pleased that the world beating facilities we now have at Boulby will allow our British team to remain at the forefront of this research.

"The laboratory at Boulby is a fine example of the cutting edge equipment and facilities being built with money from the Joint Infrastructure Fund and its successor, the Science Research Investment Fund.

By 2005/06 the science budget will have reached very nearly £3bn, more than double the figure it was in 1997/98. This expenditure is essential to enable the UK to maintain its excellent scientific record and compensate for years of under-investment in research facilities."

Dark matter experiments have been conducted at Boulby Mine for the past 12 years. The mine is a very deep working salt and potash mine run by Cleveland Potash Ltd and is possibly the best site in the world for undertaking a search for dark matter as it is both deep enough (1,100m) to shelter the experiment from cosmic rays and there is low natural radioactivity because of the purity of the salt rock on which it is situated.

The Boulby Underground Laboratory for Dark Matter Research is a facility of the UK Dark Matter Collaboration (UKDMC), involving research groups from the Universities of Sheffield and Edinburgh, Imperial College and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The groups comprise astrophysicists and particle physicists who conduct experiments to discover as yet undetected dark matter particles.

The dark matter experiments are addressing the question of what the universe is made of. It is believed that dark matter may make up at least 90 per cent of the universe. Astronomical observations suggest there is, or needs to be, a lot more matter in the universe than we can see. There is insufficient gravity from the mass we can see to explain the movement of galaxies. .