User:Jessicanajera/sandbox

Article Evaluation

Editing the article "Placer Mining".

I find the lead/introduction explains placer mining very choppily. I think it should simplify the definition of what a placer is so that even an 8th grader doing a school project could understand. This would also be beneficial to someone who knows nothing about geology.

Excellent citation under etymology, very clear source.

There are no sources next to nearly ALL the rest of the information on the page, so citations are badly needed. -> How could the person who put in this text not cite it?

Additionally, under deposits, there are no links to real-world examples of placer deposits we have! Throughout the article, there is some mention and linking of deposits that have seen significant placer mining, but none go in depth into the placer and mining process of these deposits.

I find the article is quite neutral, I don't see any biased statements. The article is not rated but it does mention that it requires lots of sourcing as it is full of unsourced material, which lines up with what I've seen. Jessicanajera (talk) 02:52, 2 February 2018 (UTC)

Week 4 - Add to an Article and Fix a Citation

I added a sentence on the Witwatersrand Basin in and created a new heading for the Placer Mining article! ("World Examples" of Placer Mining Deposits). I also fixed a citation for the definition of placer mining in alluvial terms.

Week 5 - Comments from Sarah It seems like you're going to tackle placers from both mining and geology aspects. If you're going to add information about the geology, make sure to put that in the placer deposit page and if you add details about the mining process or history of mining put that in the placer mining page.

Reviewed page 6 of Editing Wikipedia guidebook.

My partner, Pat Jardin and I have assigned Placer Mining to ourselves.

My plan to contribute is

When I did my article critique, I noticed that 1) there wasn't much content whatsoever on the page, so that I would definitely add to! I also noticed that there were barely any sources for the information on the page. That would be part of my plan to contribute. I also noticed that an aspect that really lacks on this page, is the listing of World Deposit Examples of placer mining! It blew my mind because the gold deposit that produces roughly 50% of the worlds gold is a placer mine! (Witwatersrand, South Africa.) It wasn't even mentioned! Going forward, my plan with my partner Pat is to contribute to the geological aspects of placer deposits. The geochemistry, how they form, examples, the extraction process specific to placer mining, and the types of tectonic conditions necessary to find them in. Pat has expressed that he would like to focus on geomorphological aspects of placer mining as that is his background, (Things such as the mechanics of how they form, and types of streams and surface localities they can be found in. I leave this aspect to him.)

Sources: (This list will most likely be added to as we move through our project.) Facts only from these, not bias points or perspectives from government.

https://www.gac.ca/PopularGeoscience/factsheets/PlacerGold_e.pdf https://www.britannica.com/technology/placer-mining http://www.empr.gov.bc.ca/Mining/Geoscience/PublicationsCatalogue/BulletinInformation/BulletinsAfter1940/Documents/Bull89.pdf From the Canadian Institute of Mining: http://web.cim.org/userfiles/file/placer-deposits-guidelines.pdf Jessicanajera (talk) 00:50, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

There has been discussion in the talk page about similar things I have raised as concerns. I will add a little to the talk page now. Jessicanajera (talk) 01:01, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

March 1st: "Start Writing" Rough Draft Assignment: - switching gears a little and adding in information on alluvial diamond placer mining.

Input for Placer Mining:

Adding "It is important to note that placer deposits can be as young as a few years old, such as the Canadian Queen Charlotte beach gold placer deposits, or very, very old like the Elliott Lake uranium paleoplacer in Canada." to the lead/opening paragraph to give readers more conceptual information.

Will add in more information on each type of placer! Ex: beach placer versus aeolian placer.

Alluvial Diamond Placer Deposits:

The original source of diamonds are kimberlites, long "pipes" of lava brought up from the mantle. Since diamonds are most stable at high temperatures and pressures, it makes sense that the deep mantle is a diamond source. These diamonds are then weathered from the source and swept away by alluvial processes (transported by water) to a source that becomes a diamond deposit. Alluvial diamond deposits are mined by removing sediment, termed "overburden", from the top of the rich, diamond-gravel layer. The gravel and diamonds are then washed and the diamonds are picked out of the mixture. The mixture of gravel and sand remaining is usually re-used for a purpose in the mining area.

Alluvial diamond mining often takes place in Africa, where kimberlite pipes are frequently found. The Witwatersrand Basin in Africa mentioned above is a recognized alluvial diamond deposit.

Roughly 10 percent of diamonds are mined from alluvial diamond placer mines.

New Source Found for diamond mining which facts are taken from: http://www.diamondfacts.org/pdfs/media/media_resources/fact_sheets/Alluvial_Mining_Background.pdf ~ Jessicanajera (talk) 04:37, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

Week 8 - Adding a little to my article here and Doing some Peer Editing

New Sources to add: https://www.nps.gov/yuch/learn/historyculture/placer-mining.htm https://www.britannica.com/topic/California-Gold-Rush https://www.nps.gov/klgo/learn/goldrush.htm

Under World Examples of Deposits in Wikipedia:

The Klondike Gold Rush began in 1896 when nuggets of gold were found in the Klondike region of Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. The nuggets were found in running water, making the Klondike Gold deposit an alluvial placer mining deposit, which it soon became when 30, 000 gold seekers trekked the region.

The California Gold Rush (to come soon) Jessicanajera (talk) 17:44, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

Sarah, I don't see a button in my Sandbox specifically that says "Get Help". Am I blind? Jessicanajera (talk) 21:52, 8 March 2018 (UTC) March 15, 2018:

It seems that no one has reviewed my article! I checked everyone's sandboxes and of course, my own, and nada. What I'm seeing in everybody else's though is the emphasis placed on good referencing, grammar mistakes, and adding more content. I know I need to watch out for grammar mistakes and good citing as those are professional and important, but if I had to set a plan for myself after the advice I've seen, it would be to really increase my content in the next couple weeks before we submit our assignment. I want to add lots more info to wikipedia, as my article now seems thin. The difficulty with this is finding the information to add, and also adding information that does not step on the toes of other similar articles that have already been written such as "Placer deposits" versus "placer mining"! From now until the next couple weeks, adding more content is my goal.

Reading Pages 12 and 14 of "Editing Wikipedia" on great reminders to keep linking and that your wiki help is always there for you.Jessicanajera (talk) 16:18, 15 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Hey! Your peer reviews are here - Joedf (talk) 18:47, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
 * March 22, 2018:
 * Added some of my information and added a few tweaks to my original information I generated in February, and also edited some of the material already put there by other editors! Will be transferring more over soon! ~

Diamond
The original source of diamonds are kimberlites, long "pipes" of lava brought up from the mantle. Since diamonds are most stable at high temperatures and pressures, it makes sense that the deep mantle is a diamond source. These diamonds are then weathered from the source and swept away by alluvial processes (transported by water) to a source that becomes a diamond deposit. Alluvial diamond deposits are mined by removing sediment, termed "overburden", from the top of the rich, diamond-gravel layer. The gravel and diamonds are then washed and the diamonds are picked out of the mixture. The mixture of gravel and sand remaining is usually reused for other purposes in the mining area. Alluvial diamond mining often takes place in Africa, where kimberlite pipes are frequently found. The Witwatersrand Basin in Africa mentioned above is a recognized alluvial diamond deposit.

Roughly 10 percent of diamonds are mined from alluvial diamond placer mines.

World Deposit Examples: ((Added to Placer Mining))

 * The Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa is an example of a placer deposit, as it is a 3 billion year-old, alluvial sedimentary basin containing at least 70 ore minerals.


 * The Klondike Gold Rush began in 1896 when nuggets of gold were found in the Klondike region of Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. The nuggets were found in running water, making the Klondike Gold deposit an alluvial placer mining deposit, which it soon became when 30,000 gold-seekers trekked the region.

Today I have done the training about media - even though wikipedia is very clear on it, adding media still seems like a risky business in terms of plagiarizing. The articles I'm working on seem to have 4 if not many more diagrams already for such short articles and so I'm satisfied with that. In terms of expanding and improving my work, I have added a new subheading today in Placer Deposits called "Source Rock" and a paragraph separately on the source rock for diamond and linked it to the respective page on wikipedia! I think this could be a good start for someone to take over as there is a lot of different, specific source rock for each type of placer deposit. I have linked to the Placer Mining article from the articles: Gold Mining, Gold Panning and Gold Extraction. I also used the reference to good linking skills this week to add some links in the Diamond paragraph above, that I overlooked. (Easy to overlook words like mantle and lava when you're a geology major!)  April 5th, 2018 

Following the information on page 15 of the Wikipedia Handbook, I agree that Placer Mining as an articles has a short, concise title. (Obviously!). I agree that the lead section is clear and edited as I added to it. I am confident that I wrote in my own words, non-bias, referenced properly (this is a biggie and I went over this many times), and I did my best to match my format and tone to the rest of wikipedia's encyclopaedic tone! My writing is now on wikipedia how cool is this! I am now fully confident with the article: Placer Mining. (& Placer Deposits). Thanks for a good semester Sara! :)