4 july 2006
After 3 days I am just starting to get the hang of this drill logging of rocks i have never seen before (because they are chinese and talk funny). Hot and the feet are tired - but i have worked out how to get a good lunch - there is always so much left over from the round table from the night before that i get a doggie bag made up and it appears from the kitchens fridge wrapped with napkins and chopsticks - bingo.

Today was going to be a challenge with 3 new recruits to a local contractor coming in to start sampling drill core - it started with them digging a big hole in the middle of the courtyard to take the cuttings from the 2 brand new diamond saws that have yet to turn. I got them moving the mother core boxes around and that was a great relief - especially at it comes in from the field in 3 wheel trucks that sound like a diesel motor scooter (vespa) that has to be hand cranked to start - I worry about their centre of gravity and steering capability especially coming downhill on a dirt road with a ton of rock in behind. It will be time intensive to teach them how to do the job required, to properly cut the core and sample the broken rocks representatively - I haven't even gone to the stage of what happens then, as the assays are done somewhere between here and Beijing.

The place was a hive of activity today since it seems we share the space with a couple of cashmere dealers - trucks, cars, bikes all bringing in wool to bargin, weigh, and dump in a huge pile for hand sorting in the half dark - hope they get paid well but i guess not. Someone mentioned that Inner Mongolia producers 40% of the world's cashmere ?

Probably the biggest breakthrough today however was the shower - I learned you have to run it for half an hour before the heat starts to seep in - and it worked - so first shower in a week. Now figure this: we are in a desert where there has been a drought for the last 4 years - and it is OK to run a shower for half an hour. I think we are sitting on a very good artesian bore.

see ya