Is copper the new gold for Barrick?

Has world top gold miner, Barrick Gold, given up on its principles to remain predominantly a gold producer?  While the copper content of Barrick’s business has been growing in recent years as the acquisition and development of some of its biggest new gold projects involve the co-mining of copper from big gold/copper porphyry type orebodies, today’s announced agreement to acquire copper miner Equinox seems designed to move it even more into the polymetallic production space.