An excellent placement at SIBELCO - Marc is really lucky!

Sometimes at TTPL we get a request for a placement that makes us scratch our heads for a while....Spanish graduate Marc is such a student.

He (Marc) applied for a placement and requested a sector to cover 'Stratiographic or Geophysical Technologies' (I know, I didn't know either) which actually means that he specialises in mining and mineral extraction. Not a sector we have been asked for in the past! Well we do like a challenge.

After a bit of searching, calling friends and prodigious use of Linkedin we found some people who knew some people who put us in contact with the amazing team at SIBELCO in Newton Abbot. They extract and produce China Clay from a huge, and very well hidden, site in Kingsteignton, nr Newton Abbot.

Marc has a perfect project and Debra and I had the real pleasure of a tour around the mine and extraction plant last week - amazing! We were dressed in the usual PPE (modelled here by Debra with Marc in his usual Orange uniform) and then enjoyed a Landrover tour with Marc's supervisor Clover who commented that "In February Marc started his work placement with us at Sibelco Uk working with the Operations Geologist. He is currently carrying out excellent work creating databases and helping to build one of our Geological models. This work is valuable and will be an important contribution to the evaluation that is to be carried out this year." 
It is always good to hear that our students are doing so well in their placements, particularly a placement as unique as this. The mine is a strange almost alien landscape that is both fascinating and daunting - they work on such a huge scale you feel very small...even in a big 4x4!

Thank you to all who made this possible, hope you like the pictures (on our Facebook page) and keep a look out for a blog from Marc about his experiences here in South Devon.

Clover, Debra and student Marc