Shivvee Tolgoi, Mongolia

Camp Entrance gate and Guard tower.

Well, I've been in camp 3 days now.

Everything is still pretty exciting. I've made a couple of drill site visits, as well as prospected a pretty unexciting quartz vein. I'm starting to understand what is going on with the Geology, but it's going to take a bit to have a full grasp of it. Luckily I'm surrounded by great people who know what they're doing. It's still pretty unclear what exactly my job this summer is. For the first two weeks or so I'm just shadowing the guy in charge of the Mongolian core tech'ers and cutters (Andy), as I"ll be taking over when he goes on break. A lot of the work I used to do on other projects is done by local people, so it's really just supervising and making sure things get done.

I'm also going to be mapping some interesting things that the boss wants more detail on. Pretty excited about that.

So far the weather has been chilly. Sand and dust storms the first couple days I was here, and it is not very fun. Came back to camp with sand in my teeth, and I don't think I've ever seen more sand come out of my ear on a q-tip (yea, I know, gross). Nights are pretty cold still (5-10˚C), but I've been assured they'll warm up. Today was great, beautiful clear sky, the wind is fairly light and still cool.

Nothing too exciting is happening...the pace of this camp is pretty relaxed compared to previous years. I guess that being able to work more than 3 months a year really slows things down.

Sand storm near the drill

Interesting rock formation with a birds nest on top

Sand blowing across small dunes on a hill (shutter stuck...damn sand)

This is what 700,000 Metres of Core looks like...
Over at Oyu Tolgoi, Ivanhoe's project

My Ger (Yurt) #17
The door is about a metre and a half high, but plenty of headroom inside