Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Bangkok, Thailand, March 5-7, 2019 © IEOM Society International Mining Waste Management for Sustainable Mining Practices M. M. Manyuchi Department of Operations and Quality Management, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa mercy.manyuchi@gmail.com C. Mbohwa Department of Operations and Quality Management, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa cmbohwa@uj.ac.za E. Muzenda Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa Department of Chemical, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, P Bag 16, Palapye, Botswana emuzenda@uj.ac.za; muzendae@biust.ac.bw Abstract The mining sector is one of the key economic drivers in Southern Africa. However, due to mining and minerals processing activities, huge amounts of waste are generated that have potential negative impacts to the environment. Various wastes such as wastewater, particulate gases, overburden, waste rocks, tailings and slag are generated during the value addition of the ores. Although there is potential for metal recovery and wastewater re-use from this waste generated it is critical that before a mining activity is done, an environmental impact assessment be done for sustainable mining activities. Keywords: Environment, mining, waste management, value addition 1. Introduction The mining industry is one of the industries that contributes significantly to the gross domestic product (GDP) capita of all mining countries, in Zimbabwe alone, the mining sector contributes at least 8% towards the GDP (Adler and Rascher, 2007; Hawkins 2009; Malinga, 2018). Table 1 gives a summary of the GDP growth in the mining sector. 137