Rural Development

HARARE (ILO News) - Under the auspices of the Youth and Women Empowerment Project - E4WAY- and with support of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Ministry of Women and Youth Affairs and the African Development Bank (AfDB), women artisanal gold miners in Guruve (in central Zimbabwe) co-created an environmentally sustainable gold milling plant to be located in Nyakapupu Village, Guruye District, Zimbabwe.

 
“We anticipate higher yields from these improved production processes. We foresee the project facilitating creation of employment and bringing about a general improvement of living standards for our families and the surrounding community”, Tendai Mutasa, 65, said representing the women miners of Guruve.

The gold milling enterprise seeks to catalyze production and to enhance the value that the women receive from their artisanal mining activities.

The women received technical guidance from the engineers and metallurgists from the Ministry of Mines and experts from Environment Management Agency of Zimbabwe.

Representatives from the Mining Workers’ Union and the Zimbabwe Federation of Small Scale Miners supported the creative process which was led by Professor Godfrey Dzinomwa from the School of Mines at the University of Zimbabwe.

The co-creation workshop brought to light the dangers of using mercury for processing gold ore, a practice which most of the women miners were actively involved in. Professor Dzinomwa explained the negative health effects of mercury and its long term environmental pollution, particularly when combined with cyanide. Sharing the Minamata Convention, he noted that the use of mercury had been condemned and that it was being phased out globally. The workshop participants thus, advocated for a mercury free gold recovery process.

 
Women and Youth Empowerment

The co-creation workshop was part of an ILO strategy for ensuring that key stakeholders are fully involved in every stage of the development of the Guruve Gold Milling Enterprise.

“I commend the co-creation methodology because the women will end up with a product comprising the best for their situation”, Professor Dzinomwa said.

The project applies a market systems development approach to ensure that both value-chains and wider systemic issues are addressed through targeted development interventions. It covers four value chains of artisanal gold mining, mopane worms, honey and horticulture. It is being implemented in seven districts of Zimbabwe, including Beitbridge, Mutasa, Lupane, Guruve, Mutoko, Nyanyadzi and Marondera.

The overall project aims to economically empower youth and women through the development of technical and business skills, as well as to promote enterprise development in priority sub-economic sectors.

“This project is an improvement of earlier set-ups by the Ministry in terms of processing, technology and business model. We expect the gold yields to be higher than the other operations that use traditional methods of gold extraction and processing”, Brian Guyo from the Ministry of Women and Youth Affairs underscored.