Minimal supervision in Phd I started my PhD three months ago in the UK. I am a biologist, but my project lies more in the synthetic chemistry field and all the experiments I have to do are completely new for me. 

My problem is that at the moment, I am alone in my group because everyone else have finished their PhD/Masters/Postdoc and left, and I have no one to ask when I am stuck with something. My supervisor tells me to do experiments that I have never heard of, gives me a very general and brief description and that's it! No protocols, no one to show me at least for the first time. In the labs where I have worked in the past it was completely different - PhD students have someone to assist them (a Postdoc or a technician) and they don't feel lost searching on the internet for the right protocol or method to follow.

I want to ask you if this is normal for a PhD student? Or is it how PhDs are in the UK?  I know that we have to work with minimal supervision, but is this normal? How am I supposed to start a new protocol involving sensitive instrument usage (like HPLC) with no one to show me?

Thank you in advance for your answers!
It is not normal in UK biology PhDs for a student to be completely abandoned with no help; particularly not at the beginning. As you become more confident you will be able to take on new areas and new techniques with minimal advice, but I would never expect a student to dive into complicated, expensive and potentially dangerous experiments without so much as a protocol. 

I would do the following:


Ask your supervisor straight up if he knows where a protocol might be found for the experiment, or whether he sees designing the protocol as part of the thesis. 
Find others in your institution, but outside your lab that might be able to help. 
Find an online protocol or protcol in a text book and specifically ask your supervisor if he thinks it is a good protocol and if he knows of anyone who can go through it with you.
If all else fails, a UK institution will almost always assign you a second supervisor or advisor: go speak to them.