Talk:Kabwe mine

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Kabwe mine article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Kabwe mine has been listed as one of the Geography and places good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: August 13, 2023. (Reviewed version).

Mining Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mining, a collaborative project to organize and improve articles related to mining and mineral industries. If you would like to participate, you can edit the attached article, or visit the project page, where you can see a list of open tasks, join in the discussion, or join the project.MiningWikipedia:WikiProject MiningTemplate:WikiProject MiningMining articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Zambia Low‑importance

	Zambia portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Zambia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Zambia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ZambiaWikipedia:WikiProject ZambiaTemplate:WikiProject ZambiaZambia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Environment Low‑importance

	Environment portal This environment-related article is part of the WikiProject Environment to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the environment. The aim is to write neutral and well-referenced articles on environment-related topics, as well as to ensure that environment articles are properly categorized. Read Wikipedia:Contributing FAQ and leave any messages at the project talk page.EnvironmentWikipedia:WikiProject EnvironmentTemplate:WikiProject EnvironmentEnvironment articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Disaster management Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Disaster management, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Disaster management on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Disaster managementWikipedia:WikiProject Disaster managementTemplate:WikiProject Disaster managementDisaster management articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

A fact from Kabwe mine appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 27 August 2023 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the Kabwe mine produced crystals and a fossilised pre-human skull (replica pictured), and has poisoned hundreds of thousands of people?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2023/August. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Kabwe mine.

GA Review

Passed. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 17:59, 13 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

This review is transcluded from Talk:Kabwe mine/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Sammi Brie (talk · contribs) 00:38, 12 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)
It is reasonably well written. a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists): It is factually accurate and verifiable. a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism): It is broad in its coverage. a (major aspects): b (focused): It follows the neutral point of view policy. Fair representation without bias: It is stable. No edit wars, etc.: It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate. a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
Overall: Pass/Fail:
· · ·

Mostly copy changes and some citations that should be switched out for others in the same article. Well on its way, in my estimation. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 01:14, 12 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the prompt review! I have addressed a few of the issues, and will get to the rest of it soon. Larataguera (talk) 18:16, 12 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Sammi Brie, I think I have addressed all of the concerns that you raised below. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions! Thanks again. All of your comments were very helpful! Larataguera (talk) 11:04, 13 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Copy changes

Throughout: Take short, choppy paragraphs and reconfigure them into fewer but longer, more coherent paragraphs.
- I have consolidated single-sentence paragraphs into longer paragraphs
MOS:LEADCITE: Most items cited in the body do not need citations in the lead. You may have several redundant citations as a result.
- I found that several of the statements made in the lead weren't repeated in the body, so I restated some things lower down and moved the citations. Let me know if the remaining citations in the lead are ok, or if you would like to see more restatement of information in the body and citations removed from the lead. Larataguera (talk) 18:13, 12 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The mine produced extremely toxic lead pollution for ninety years. Several studies have confirmed that over 100,000 people including tens of thousands of children near the mine suffer from lead poisoning. Add commas before and after the bolded section to improve reading
- Done
The first railway in the country, operated by Rhodesian Railways, reached the Broken Hill mine as early as 1906, and the town became the northern base for the railway, which was the second biggest employer after the mine. Needs a citation.
- I had copied this from Kabwe, where it is uncited. I could only find citation for part of this information, so I cut it down to what I could verify and added a citation.
Consider reflowing the short choppy paragraphs in "History" into longer ones.
- I consolidated a few of the short paragraphs in this section
a division of Anglo-American plc headquartered in South Africa is the division headquartered or SA or the company? if the latter, add a comma after plc
- I rephrased, hopefully this is clearer. Anglo American plc was headquartered in South Africa, though it has since moved to London.
"lined with beautiful crystals of pyromorphite and cerussite," MOS:LOGICAL move comma out of quotes
- Done
Link some of the mineral names; "Sphalerite" does not need to be capitalized.
- I linked all of the mineral names.
Add a comma after the (400ppm) parenthetical because the sentence has multiple subjects and verbs. See User:Sammi Brie/Commas in sentences (CinS)
- Done
Anglo American says that it provided technical services at the mine, and that the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines has accepted liability for the poisoning. Remove comma (CinS)
- Done
"in 2015" starts sentence with no capitalization.
- Done
By 2021, the Zambian government had taken some actions to provide healthcare for people, but had not taken steps to clean up the toxic waste. Remove comma (CinS)
- removed

Spot checks

10: Chemosphere article is used six times.
- Despite closure of the mine, scavenging of metal scraps from the abandoned tailings and wastes stored on the mine has continued to serve as a source of metal pollution, especially dusts emanating from the mine dumps. Does this describe artisanal mining? It does note the continued lead risk. Change any refs on artisanal mining to [11]; leave [10] to mention continued risk.
  - I changed the citation on the mention of artisanal mining to Rocks and Minerals (now [8] because of changes to citations in the lead)
- Anglo American isn't mentioned in this, so it shouldn't be cited for the sentence that says AA claims to have never owned the mine.
  - Removed
- As shown in Table 2, all of the sampled children had BLLs exceeding the guideline value that raise ‘health concerns’ (5 μg/dL). There were 246 samples; 161 of the 246 were above 5 μg/dL. That's a good use for "many". Y
11: Article in Rocks & Minerals.
- Shortly after Zambian independence, in 1964, the name of both the mine and the town that had grown up around it was changed from Broken Hill to Kabwe. Underground mining ceased in 1994, but artisanal operations have continued to recover ore minerals from spoil heaps and waste dumps. Y
- Under the auspices of the Rhodesia Broken Hill Company, mining at Kabwe commenced in 1904 and reached full-scale production in 1906 (CitationMufinda 2015), and in the ensuing eighty-eight years, the Broken Hill deposit produced more than 1.8 million tons (mt) of zinc and 0.8 mt of lead metal; 7,816 tonnes of vanadium oxide; 80,000 kilograms of silver; and 235,000 kilograms of cadmium Y
- Caverns in the lower part of the gossan contained mammalian bones and associated phosphate minerals, including pyromorphite, hopeite, parahopeite, and tarbuttite, and the vanadates descloizite and vanadinite. ... "caves lined with beautiful crystals of pyromorphite and cerussite were disclosed" (Pelletier 1929) Y
15: Article in The Lancet. was most productive under the ownership of Anglo American South Africa, between 1906 and 1974. The Zambian Government then took over until the mine closed in 1994. The 1925 date is in the co-cited Al Jazeera article and also in Foreign Policy: The lawsuit was filed in Johannesburg because Anglo American was headquartered there when it held a majority stake in the lead mine in Kabwe from 1925 until 1974, when it was nationalized by the Zambian government—before eventually being closed in 1994.
- Please clarify if you would like any changes here. I suppose there's some ambiguity as to whether peak production should be described between 1906-74 or 1925-74. Seems like the majority of sources take it from '25, but I'm happy to attempt some clarification if necessary.
  - I meant to put a Y here.
16: Sphalerite, galena, pyrite, minor chalcopyrite, and accessory Ge-sulphides of briartite and renierite constitute the primary ore mineral assemblage. Cores of massive sulphide orebodies are surrounded by oxide zones of silicate ore (willemite) and mineralized jasperoid that consists largely of quartz, willemite, cerussite, smithsonite, goethite and hematite, as well as numerous other secondary minerals Y
19: Bloomberg article on hearing considering class-action status. Checks out in the paywall preview. Y

Earwig finds a few five- or six-word phrases shared but they are not creative phrases.

Images

There is a 1906 railway construction image, LOC, no known copyright restrictions. The rock image is CC-BY-SA 3.0. Encouragement: Use somewhat more descriptive alt text and add it to the railway image, even if it's "Refer to caption".

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by BorgQueen (talk) 11:52, 20 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

Replica of the Kabwe skull

... ~~that Kabwe mine produced beautiful crystals and a fossilised human skull (pictured), and it has poisoned hundreds of thousands of people?~~ Source: crystals and skull: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00357529.2019.1530038 poisoning: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-71998-5
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Sakhela Buhlungu

Improved to Good Article status by Larataguera (talk). Self-nominated at 20:38, 14 August 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Kabwe mine; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.[reply]

Article promoted to "GA" status on 13 August so newness requirement is satisfied. Article is also more than long enough and well written and sourced. Earwig finds no issues. Hook is short enough and quite interesting. Two issues: (1) the sources refer to Kabwe 1 as a "human precursor" so it seems appropriate to use that terminology rather than to characterize it as a human skull, and (2) I am struggling to find the reference to "hundreds of thousands" of people being poisoned in the linked source. Can you provide a quote for number? Cbl62 (talk) 17:27, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Cbl62, thanks for the prompt review! Good catch on 'human' vs 'human precursor'. How about

Alt1: ... that Kabwe mine produced beautiful crystals and a fossilised skull (pictured), and it has poisoned hundreds of thousands of people?

Hopefully we get to keep the picture, and it won't matter that it doesn't say what kind of skull it was?

As for a quote, the article states: Further, the mean BLL [blood lead level] of our estimates was considerably higher than the standard reference level of 5 μg/dL, and the proportion of those with BLLs above this level amounted to 74.9%. Based on our population estimate as of 2017, this proportion corresponds to 202,500 individuals. If we keep in mind that these 202,500 people are presently suffering from lead poisoning (in 2020), and the mine has been poisoning people for over 100 years, "hundreds of thousands" seems like the best description. Larataguera (talk) 20:01, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Could also do, Alt1a: ... that Kabwe mine produced beautiful crystals and a fossilised pre-human skull (pictured), and it has poisoned hundreds of thousands of people? Larataguera (talk) 20:10, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Alts 1 and 1a are good to go. I like 1a a more, but both are good. Cbl62 (talk) 20:54, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]