Zimbabwe School of Mines

1926 to 1990 (FROM GIFFORD HIGH SCHOOL TO BULAWAYO POLYTECHNIC)

The Zimbabwe School of Mines is a unique, dynamic and vibrant mining training Institution that was formed by a Presidential Charter in 1994 although its existence dates back to 1926 where it was operating from Gifford High School.
Mr. P.H. Gifford plus four other people incepted the Bulawayo Technical School in 1927 with a total of 39 students. In 1934 the School of Mines was moved from Gifford High School to be under the Bulawayo Technical School.
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. The mandate for the committee was ‘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’.
In 1934 Mr. Roland Starkey, who was the Mining Representative of the school prepared a scheme for starting of “the School of Mines” which later became the fully-fledged Mining Department in 1936.