User:Enzo User/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Bauxite

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose Bauxite because it is an ore, and I am interested in geology and mineral refining. I also have obtained several books on minerals and ores during my geology education, and am looking forward to the opportunity to have a clear application for the knowledge resources I've been able to put together so far. Bauxite is important because it is the principal ore of aluminium, one of the most commonly used metals in modern society.

My preliminary impression of the article is that it was an informative overview that had an odd balance between technical information, and information suitable for a layperson. Some of the data used is slightly out of date, some of the description of the rock in hand sample could use a bit more information, some of the information in the summary had technical information that I feel should be put a bit later on in the article, and some of the trivial and extra information on bauxite has room to be expanded. I can see several areas where I can improve this article.

Evaluate the article
I think the lead section starts off good, but jumps into minutia about the component minerals, even going into detail on the smaller amounts of minerals that are more incidental than a core part of the makeup of Bauxite.

Information about the mineral composition of Bauxite is incidentally found in the Formation and Processing sections, and is implied in the section that details that it is a source of Gallium, but there is no section specifically dedicated to detailing Bauxite's composition.

Information on how to identify bauxite, and how it regularly appears would also be useful for geology students, who I imagine would be a large portion of those who would find themselves on this article.

The overall information contained in the article seems very relevant to me, if a bit scattered. It could use a section dedicated to it's distinctive appearance relative to many other minerals, it's use in the refractory industry, and some other information that would be of interest to someone who would want to know more about this rock and why it's important.

The information about how gallium accumulates and is refined from the bauxite refining process is interesting, but is borderline off-topic. I think that this would be best mentioned as a sub-section in a trivia section.

The information on Bauxite production and reserves in the table is at least two years out of date, and newer tables from the same resource can easily be found to update the table.

As with many primary industries, having some information related to production, consumption, and price trends over time would be an interesting addition to the article in it's own section that would help the interested reader get a better understanding of the importance of the rock's importance. When describing the various uses for Bauxite and Alumina, there's possibility for expansion into detailing these various uses, or at least linking them to other pages (or creating those supplementary pages).

I do not see gender relations or race relations as being relevant subjects to rocks and metal ores.

Regarding done and balance, the most controversial information about bauxite and alumina I've found has been in describing the industry effects that the chinese flu has had on things like coal deliveries. This is about the ore and it's uses, not about mining or particularly destructive mining or refinement methods. This is an informative article, and does not appear to my eyes to be trying to persuade anyone of anything. This is close to as politically irrelevant a subject as could reasonably be found.

For sourcing, there is one instance of the origin of the term bauxite is explained using a primary source. A non-primary source of this story was requested, and I have at least one example of one of these non-primary sources on hand. The other sources appear to come from a good variety of relevant industry papers and literature. There is at least one instance of a BBC article describing how much of the worl's dry bauxite production is procedded into alumina and then aluminum by electrolysis. This article is from 2010, so it's both old enough to be replaced, and I have an industry source that can replace this processing fact.

The existing links appear to work just fine. The images (and one video) used are illustrative and explain a lot. The captioning of the images helps explain what they're illustrating for anyone who doesn't know a lot.

The talk page is mostly about minor issues like asking about trivia questions like how much bauxite ore is needed to make one kg of aluminium, clarification on units,, aluminium vs aluminum, and a surprisingly spirited discussion on distinguishing the "penny" with a "us one cent piece". Most of these subjects are of little real importance, or are very old comments from between seven to twelve years ago. The impression I get is that this is a stable article with few major problems with it.

This article is rated as a C-class article, and is part of 5 total WikiProjects. 1 of those projects is unactive, and the article is rated as Mid-importance in 3 of the active projects, and High-importance in one project.

Wikipedia's talk page discusses bauxite with a lot more emphasis on what seem like minor details compared to how we've discussed it in class. The units used in the class slides were consistent and had no ambiguity, but the various circumstances mass measurements of bauxite and other materials are used in the article and the various sources used for this information seems to have introduced a bit of ambiguity. There is also some scattered talk about the article's accessibility for the layperson, which includes requests for information on the pronunciation of bauxite, and a bit of criticism on how the article starts off with technical terms rather than a layman-focused introductory paragraph.

Overall, the article appears to be a good overview for someone with a minor amount of technical knowledge. It's slightly awkward for a complete layman, and has several notable instances of out of date information. The article is involved in many different wikiprojects, and given how common Aluminium is in modern society, articles on it's primary ore seem like they'd be important enough for some maintenance.

Strengths of the article include it's inclusion of information on most of the life cycle of the ore. From its formation in the ground, how much of it various countries have (or are producing), and how it is mined and processed. The article also includes some trivia information like how bauxite also happens to be the main source of the rare metal gallium, includes wiki links to companies, towns, and ships that are specialized in alumina or bauxite, includes suggestions for further reading, and includes some very helpful mineral information pages in it's external links section.

Possible improvements to the article include making the opening section more friendly to the layperson, updating the out-of-date information with current figures, adding a new section to describe some of the uses of the ore to continue the article's existing structure of describing the life cycle of the ore, and re-organizing some of the side-information into a new section devoted to trivia or other interesting facts about the ore.

The article is detailed, but has some gaps regarding the uses of the ore. The "Processing" section could use some subdivision to separate the mining section from the mineral refinement section, and maybe a diagram to help illustrate the process. The "Formation" section could potentially be massively expanded with information such as what % of world resources each deposite type makes up, and how thick the layers of the deposit tend to be.

The article is good, but I can see several clear ways to make it better.