"Gold is the most noble of the noble metals. Its properties are unaffected by air, water, or time. Thus, its alchemical associations with perfection and immortality persist today. its celestial associations are rooted in materiality as well, as virtually all gold on the planet arrived here by meteorite. Two billion years ago, an asteroid collision created the largest accessible gold deposit on earth, the Witwatersrand basin. The most gold ever mined has been extracted from the south ridge of this astronomical depression, now called Johannesburg, South Africa. Here, the noble metal is liquefied by heavy metals for ease of extraction, making mining a type of reverse transmutation, an anti-alchemy, turning land from gold to mercury."
- Liz Sales on Jason Larkin’s Tales from the City of Gold in the Alchemy Issue of Conveyor Magazine published September 2014. Check out our digital preview here of the issue here and purchase a print copy here!
All Images by Jason Larkin.
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