Barrick Gold’s Australian super pit stake sale draws interest from Kinross, Zijin — Financial Post – Top Stories

Barrick Gold Corp.’s stake in the Kalgoorlie Super Pit mine has drawn interest from Kinross Gold Corp. and Zijin Mining Group Co. in a sale that could fetch as much as US$1 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. Australian producers Newcrest Mining Ltd., Northern Star Resources Ltd. and Evolution Mining Ltd. are also reviewing data…

via Barrick Gold’s Australian super pit stake sale draws interest from Kinross, Zijin — Financial Post – Top Stories

Is this a “study” in contrasts or what! As “they” say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, I say, this photo is surely speaking volumes. I have a question for you, the reader. What thought or thoughts first popped into your mind upon seeing the above photo? Let’s not try to get philosophical, I mean your “gut” reaction. Mine was one of contrasts. There are really two “photos” one might say, did someone use PhotoShop software to enhance this photo? Of, course, not. (At least I don’t think so.) The photo in one sense seems like the yin and yang symbol of the Chinese culture, representing opposite forces. There is the huge gaping hole of the humanly engineered-mine and the huge human civilization existing right along side it.

The mine represents “forces of an economy.” By that I mean in this case a “scarce” resource (gold) being used to support jobs, a capitalistic enterprise i.e., a mining company, and creating a “local” economy for the region where the mine is located. But it is still a gaping hole in the earth, a wound in the earth’s surface. I am discovering that I am writing not only about “human” economics but environmental economics as well. Here’s a quote from the article:

The Barrick asset, known as the Super Pit, is 3.5 kilometers long and ranks as Australia’s largest open-pit gold mine, its website shows. It’s located in Kalgoorlie, a city in Western Australia where the metal has been produced continuously since a late 19th-century gold rush.

I recently wrote another blog article motivated by another striking photo:
Saskatchewan water.

We are living in the “age of shock.” In order to get people’s attention, many times abrupt, jarring tactics are used by the media, or others to gain attention to an event, a product, a person, you name it.

So do we just get more numb in order to counter-act the shock? Have you seen any “yin and yang” contrasts? It creates food for thought and perhaps hopefully civil conversation.