John Smallwood

Merlin organised and led an excellent integrated field trip and technical seminar for the whole [Aurelian] exploration team ; this was a perfect combination of geoscience master class and discussion of live exploration projects in the classroom followed immediately by time in the field examining primarily structural but also stratigraphic elements pertinent to the subsurface challenges we were tackling. The balance worked extremely well and was supported with an excellent field guide; going beyond the normal as it also included sufficient theoretical and practical published material to illustrate and expand on the geometries and relationships observed in the field. The combination meant field learning’s were directly applicable into exploration and development issues currently being worked by the company. Tim Wright and Phil Copestake are excellent leaders and balanced encouraging participants to develop their own observation skills with their own extensive local and literature knowledge to widen the value of the trip far above that of a show and tell. The outcrops were excellent and accommodation and catering much appreciated by the trip participants. I am planning to work again with Merlin on a similar trip next year.