Touring the Ajax site — a sense of magnitude
At the Ajax open-pit site, looking toward Knutsford.
Four times a week, KGHM loads about 30 people onto a bus and takes them on a bumpy ride from Inks Lake up into the grasslands to the future site of the giant open pit copper-gold mine it wants to operate if it can get all the official permissions.
I took the tour yesterday. It wasn’t the first time I’ve been in the area, but after having looked at maps, read reports and viewed both scale models of the proposal, a 90-minute visit to the area provides a more complete perspective of the size of the proposed mine.
On a map or model, you get a feel for comparison — the pit will be as big as…. the waste rock pile will be as big as…. etc. And, by now, surely every resident of Kamloops knows the general layout, knows how many jobs would be created, how much would be spent building and operating this mine, knows about Inks Lake and Jacko Lake and diverting Peterson Creek and where the water will come from and where the roads will go to and on and on.
But, being there, when you can look to the horizon where a waste pile will begin and turn your head in the opposite direction to where it will end, and try to imagine how high a hundred meters is, and stand in the middle of where the pit will be, and scan the huge piece of land that will become a massive hole in the earth — it’s almost hard to believe that man could alter our planet on such a scale.
The tours were supposed to end this month but the company will continue them into October to meet demand.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I like the human perspective, walk the area, smell the flowers , listen ! Then imagine that , gone forever for a few pieces of silver. Thanks for personal reminder, it is about how that hole will be forever!
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