The Lousal mining complex is located in southwest Portugal, and is nowadays the Mine of Science – Lousal Ciência Viva Center.
The LouMu project has a muon telescope installed at the Waldemar Galery, to observe the ground above the mine.
The Lousal mine was chosen to have the first muography installation in Portugal.
The mine operated between 1900 and 1988 for pyrite extraction. After it closed, it was re-qualified and transformed into an open sky science museum.
The muography is taken from the upper mine gallery, the Waldemar Gallery, where a muon telescope prototype, the MiniMu, is now installed. The MiniMu has been used both for operational tests and for outreach about LouMu and the muography technique.
There is a long history of geological and geophysical studies in and around the mine. The muography will provide a new geological survey of the ground above the mine.
This makes it a good test site to evaluate the performance and sensitivity of the muon telescope and muographic analyses, by comparing the results obtained with the already existing information. The results will also provide new geological information for this location, now obtained with a novel survey technique.
This 3D survey obtained with a Laser Scanner, shows the section of the Waldemar Gallery that houses the MiniMu. It has two passages and also a shaft that connects the mine to the surface of the ground that is being observed.