Back in Dourdan after 3 weeks in the Coast, I've now had 6 weeks in Cote d'Ivoire which makes me an expert I think? My last stint was all about working close to our mine, Bonikro, on the near-mine exploration. A very different experience for me, it was about defining resources, trying to prove up as much as possible, rather than trying to find something. Was good fun and enabled me to see a different side of the company, and to work with some different geo's. There are 2 expats working close to the mine, Keith and Jonnina. Keith has been here for a long time and knows a lot about a lot and is a great person to work with, very extrovert! Or should I say "Australian". Jonnina's from Sweden and next to Keith has been here the longest.

As well as the expats there are a new bunch of local geo's to get to know. As exploration in the Cote is relatively young there is not huge experience in the local work force. But the guys are very keen and willing to learn all the time. It's a very different working environment than I am used to, even things like computer literacy can't be taken for granted here. So while a person may be a qualified geo that doesn't mean they will be able to work Microsoft Excel. These photos are from a training session we had with to understand logging core and drill chips.