The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Barrick Gold always wanted to team up with Newmont Mining of Colorado. The Globe's Eric Reguly writes that merging the two giants, which have adjoining operations in gold-rich Nevada, would have created an unassailable industry leader and reduced costs by an estimated $1-billion (U.S.) a year. The deal never got off the ground, in good part because Barrick founder Peter Munk wanted the new company to stay in Toronto, not move to Denver. On Monday, it was Newmont's turn to accelerate what appears to be the second wave of the great hollowing-out story, a decade after Inco, Falconbridge, Alcan, Dofasco, Stelco and dozens of other industrials were eradicated from the Canadian map. It agreed to buy Vancouver's Goldcorp for $10-billion in an all-stock deal, plus two cents a share in cash. Together, Newmont and Goldcorp would displace Barrick-Randgold as the world's top gold producer, and Canada will lose another big head office. Goldcorp was Canada's second-biggest gold producer and third largest by market value. Goldcorp was vulnerable because its share price was so low thanks to a series of missteps under a series of uninspiring chief executive officers.