User:Colemason19/Mining industry of Mali/Oahmad2019 Peer Review

Response to Peer Feedback
Hi Omar,

Thank you so much for your thoughtful peer review. These comments are extremely helpful and have given me a lot to think about.

History
I was struggling most with the history section, so I greatly appreciate your insights. I was focusing more on production, impacts, and overall page reorganization, but I think your interventions in the history part are important. My research on France as an actor stressed that France really valued cotton in terms of exports, but as you said, it's probably a good idea to include a few sentences as to more specifically why that was. This leads into your point about discussing independence, when afterwards gold took off as an export. Under the Traore regime and as an ally of the Soviet Union, gold mining grew in importance over cotton. Your identification of these crucial points of transition will help me make a more complete and informative historical overview.

Production & Legal Framework
In terms of production, I was not even thinking about gold mining as a process. I was focused more on economic contributions. I should definitely include some information as to how gold is industrially processed versus how it is artisinally processed. The "other minderals" section and the "legal framework" section, two that you identified as a bit confusing, are both sections from the original wikipedia page. I will go in and smooth those out. They are a bit outside of the focus of what I am doing, but I should make sure that they are still helpful to the page.

Impacts
Finally, with respect to your comments on economic development, my impression is that the reason we do not see investment in infrastructure is due to a lot of revenue outflow to foreign actors. I will make that more clear in the article. I wanted to make sure I gave at least some impression of how gold impacted development in the country, so pointing out that question helps me make sure I paint a clear picture.

Thank you Omar!



Evaluate the drafted changes
Hey Cole,

Overall, this is looking really good! You've got a ton of information piled into the draft, and it reads fairly neutrally all throughout. Below are some thoughts I had about where it could be stronger, going by section:

History
Largely, I think this section is good and provides solid context. In the second paragraph, when you're talking about France, I was wondering if there was any information as to why the importance of gold declined. I think that would be helpful to add in (if the info is available) since it stands out, or if there is something you could link to instead. I also think it'd be good to explain in a little more detail or explicitly what artisanal mining is — right now it reads as though it's any gold mining that occurs in local communities (so if that's right, then disregard this comment). Also, it might be good to add in a note about Independence and how that might have influenced Mali's approach to gold mining and subsequent alignment with the Soviet Union.

Production
I don't have too many comments here, as the facts are laid out really well and follow fairly easily. One thing is that I think it would be interesting to talk about what countries those resource extraction companies are based in, just to see who has stake in the gold mining industry within Mali. The larger suggestion I'd have would be to talk a bit about the production process itself when it comes to gold mining. Given the section header, I went into it thinking it would include some of that content (i.e. what tools are used, what industrial mining looks like, etc.) and so it would be useful to have an idea of it in this section.

Another very small comment, but the first sentence of the "other materials" part reads a little oddly (might be a typo), so I'd just take a second look at that.

Impacts of Natural Resource Extraction
In the Economic Development section, is there any ideas as to why the revenue is being reinvested in the country's infrastructure? In the Sierra Leone context, we see similar things due to government corruption, so I was curious as to whether there were explanations as to why we aren't seeing Econ Dev in the nation. Otherwise, I think this section is really strong and underpins the rest of your article quite well. No other major comments here!

Legal Framework
This section just left me a bit confused, as I wasn't sure what the different laws and regulations meant or included. Might be good in your next draft to talk a bit about them, and what they mean for the gold mining industry more broadly within Mali.

Generally, I think the article is looking great and you're definitely on the right track!