The mine that's swallowing a town : "With gold prices hitting record modern-day highs, its North American owners plan to make the Super Pit even bigger, unlocking billions of dollars' worth of extra gold and extending the mine's life through to 2017. The expansion would make the mine 4km long, 1.6km wide and 600m deep, enough to fit two Eiffel Towers on top of each other."Overseas owners are hardly going to care what is happening to our landscape, our environment , our locals if there is money to be made. It's gold. Why would they care about WA when gold can fetch so much on the world market and they don't even live here? The mine expansion is daily rocking the city. The extensions will bring it within 200m of homes. The company is the nation's single biggest emitter of mercury and has a poor record with pollutant control. Our fault for selling it to them. Our fault for not looking after our own. Our fault for not being more vigilant, but heh, it's money. Billions of dollars so...meh. When I first saw the picture I thought it must have been a new Australian art work. It looks astounding. A mine in WA is no big deal, but mines have looked after our country. Not this one. EPA appears to be non compliant with regulations and is arguing technicalities, which is a pretty flimsy approach, so the residents and town are under threat. We are learning a very expensive lesson and it is about time Australia came up to speed.
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