## MUSIC: SOUND OF EDVARD GRIEG’S “MORNING MOOD” ##
Robots are amazing creatures. These beautiful beings with long gracious arms, brains made from copper wire and circuit boards, and hearts of cold hard steel. There are few things as mesmerizing as watching a robot buzz around as it carefully but determined picks up and places hundreds of pieces of silicon. The hydraulic fluid pumps rapidly in the robot’s veins as it endlessly strives to fulfill its owner’s commands of seemingly meaningless series of movements. It almost becomes a dance as it gently interacts both with other machines and with people, performing the same task over and over…
## SOUND OF SCREECH FROM A STOPPING RECORD PLAYER ##
That is, of course, until it breaks down, and starts crying for the help of the maintenance department.

As I write this, my first period as an Elkem trainee is coming to an end. The sun is shining on the Orkdal fjord and the furnaces are humming quietly. There is a warm atmosphere in the office I am sharing with a few of the process engineers here at Elkem Thamshavn, one of the most energy efficient silicon smelting plants in the world.

Two years after Bluestar Silicones was merged with Elkem in June 2015 and after the renaming of Bluestar Silicones to Elkem Silicones in June 2017, I had the great opportunity to be the first employee of the Silicones division to participate to the Elkem Trainee Program.