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While compiling the national accounts for SWA/Namibia over the past seven years my interest was drawn to the overwhelming impact mining has on the country's overall economic activity. This tempted me to make a study of the contribution of mining to the economic development of SWA/Namibia. This study was conducted during a period in which virtually no reliable data on the subject were available and it was necessary to make an intensive search for available statistics and to revise, verify and arrange them into an acceptable format. This thesis therefore contains the result of research conducted over that past five years and I hope that it may contribute towards a better understanding of the functioning of SWA/Namibia's economy and the role mining plays in this process. I also hope that the thesis may clarify some of the real economic problems facing the country and offer some suggestions to overcome them in order that the people of SWA/Namibia may enjoy the full benefit of the country's mineral resources, This study was made possible mainly through my employment in the Economic and Financial Planning Division of the Department of Finance in Windhoek. In this respect I owe a special debt of gratitude to the Secretary for Finance, Dr. J. Jones, for the use of the department's computer and word processing facilities, and for access to official statistics. The views expressed in this thesis are, however, solely my own and not those of the Department of Finance. Nevertheless, the results of my statistical analyses presented in this thesis have been incorporated in the official national accounts of the country from time to time, In the second instance I am grateful to the Economics Department of the University of Stellenbosch for accommodating this thesis under its supervision. I am, however, particularly indebted to my supervisor, Prof. S. A. Cloete, for his guidance and for the numerous suggestions he has made on improving the content and format of the thesis. The same applies to Prof. P. J. Mohr of the University of South Africa and to Prof. D. G. Franzsen, who gave valuable criticism on unclear argu mentation in some parts of the thesis..