Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Pilsen, Czech Republic, July 23-26, 2019 © IEOM Society International Gold Value Addition and Beneficiation for Women in the Mining Sector M. M. Manyuchi* 1 Department of Mining Research, Value Addition and Beneficiation, Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Zimbabwe 2 Department of Operations and Quality Management, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa mercy.manyuchi@gmail.com C. Mbohwa 2 Department of Operations and Quality Management, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa cmbohwa@uj.ac.za E. Muzenda 3 Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa 4 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 major contributors to the growth of the economy in Zimbabwe. Gold mining is the biggest contributor to the economy and in 2017, an average of 28.4 tons of gold was obtained from both small scale and large scale miners with women miners contributing to this success. Gold presents an opportunity for value addition into products like jewellery, bars and coins, ornaments and electronic devices. The downstream processing of gold results in employment creation, technology transfer, infrastructure development and new product development. The Jewelleries Council of Zimbabwe in liaison with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Fidelity Printers Refiners are pushing for the value addition of the yellow mineral for the economic growth of Zimbabwe. Gender sensitive policies being formulated by government are meant to encourage women to tap into gold value addition and beneficiation initiatives for improved empowerment, income for families and empowered societies. Keywords: Economic growth, employment creation, gold, value addition, women empowerment 1. Introduction Gold is one of the most common minerals and is well known for its special properties and value. Gold exists mostly with silver and traces of iron and copper with a gold nugget having 70-90% of gold. Gold is mined from gold ore, the ore is crushed and the metal is separate from the ore using a variety of techniques. Gold has a very high density 1258