Month: July 2013

Floating coal and exploring my home

So, my time in Cape Town has begun for the next 8 weeks and I have already been here for a week – I really can’t believe it! Since finding out how I would be spending my summer (unfortunately not summer in the Southern Hemisphere), 6000 miles (ish) away from home, I didn’t quite believe I would eventually be living and working in what is regarded as one of the best cities in the world!

So you may be wondering how I managed to spend so much time in such an amazing place…. Well, I was lucky enough to be awarded the Rio Tinto scholarship, a new initiative created this year to form a partnership between Imperial College and Rio Tinto, one of the biggest mining companies in the world.

Microwaving rocks in the magical land of Oz

Crazy title. Hold onto your seats, all will be revealed.

3 weeks down already?! Cue blogging cliché no.1: time really does fly by when you’re having fun! But let’s rewind a little.

So you may be wondering how on earth we ended up down-undaah?

Along with 10 other lucky students, we were awarded The Rio Tinto Scholarship 2012. Such a privilege has allowed us to set off on summer internships to different corners of the world, to gain valuable insights into the mining industry.

So here we are at The Julius-Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre, Brisbane, Australia (check out our pad here in Indooroopilly).