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Metal absorption lines along the line of sight to distant quasars provide an unbiased census of the metal enrichment and ionisation history of the Universe. We present a search and consistent analysis for MgII absorption systems in the foreground of 4 high redshift (z ∼ 6) quasar spectra obtained with the ESO Very Large Telescope X-shooter. The medium resolution and high sensitivity allow us to measure, for the first time, the evolution of the comoving mass density, Omega(MgII), from z = 2 to 5.5, approaching the end of the Epoch of Reionisation. |
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