The history of the mine dates back to 1937 when F.P. Mennel, a geologist and Mining Engineer, came into possession of old Portuguese maps which showed iron ore deposits at Dorowa in Buhera, some 230 km south-east of Harare the capital city of Zimbabwe. With the aid of this faded guide, Mennel located Dorowa in 1938. These deposits turned to be magnetite, occurring as stones which were used as ‘bullets’ in muzzle loaders. This gave Dorowa its name, meaning ‘the stones that kill’. Closer analysis of the deposit also revealed the presence of apatite ore (phosphate minerals). Mennel pegged his phosphate claims but sold them to AE&CI of South Africa in 1958. Production of phosphate rock concentrate at Dorowa by AE&CI began in 1965. The Dorowa ore deposit is of volcanic (igneous) origin and is located within a horse shoe shaped range of hills about 5km from Save River, where process water is conveniently abstracted at a rate of about 5 million litres a day for use in the froth floatation concentration plant. Production of phosphate rock concentrates was increased by 50% in 1973 to about 150 000 tonnes per annum. This level of production has been maintained since than. However the grade of concentrates produced has been upgraded through improved technology from 35% to 37% P2O5. The phosphate concentrate produced is used mainly for the manufacture of superphosphate fertilizers at Zimbabwe Phosphate Industries Limited (ZimPhos), a sister company located in Harare.