As part of my doctoral studies at the Montanuniversität Leoben, I had the opportunity to participate in a three-week staff mobility programme funded by Erasmus+ in September 2023, which took me to the Geological Survey of Slovenia (GeoZS) in Ljubljana, our research partners in the MURmap project. During my research stay in the Department of Mineral Resources and Geochemistry, I was supervised by Dr Gorazd Žibret.

I had the opportunity to take part in field trips, for example to record an alluvial sediment profile on the Mur River or to visit the mercury mine in Idrija. However, I spent most of my time in the laboratory, where I worked with Barbara Čeplak and an intern to process the samples from the alluvial sediment profiles, which were sieved after drying and divided into different fractions. One highlight was definitely working with the scanning electron microscope, which was used to examine the sediments from the MURmap campaigns and determine the elemental composition of individual grains using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. I was able to deepen and expand my knowledge in the field of geochemical analysis laboratories, and I greatly appreciate(d) the collaboration with my Slovenian colleagues.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Slovenia and was able to get to know Ljubljana from a completely different perspective.

Above all, I would like to thank Barbara Čeplak, who patiently explained everything to me and took the time to work with me.