The Zimbabwe School of Mines was formed by a Presidential Charter in 1994 but had been in existence since 1926 operating from Gifford High School premises. The headmaster of Gifford High School Mr. P.H. Gifford with other like minded gentlemen incepted the Bulawayo Techn ical School in 1927 with a total of 39 students. The School of Mines was then moved from Gifford High School to be under the Bulawayo Technical School in 1934. The establishment of a Mining Department at the Bulawayo Technical School was a result of the deliberations of a Special Committee appointed by the then Minister of Mines. A committee was the mandated ‘to consider the best means of affording technical education and practical training for youths who wished to enter the Mining Industry.’ The scheme also received approval from the then Rhodesia Chamber of Mines, which at that time was headquartered in Bulawayo. The Chamber of Mines ‘considered the move as a necessary provision of technical training for youths for one of the most important industries in the country’. Mr. Roland Starkey, who was the Mining Representative of the school in 1934 prepared a roadmap for starting of “the School of Mines” which later became the fully-fledged Mining Department in 1936.
