The economy of the North West is firmly based on agriculture and mining, both of which activities influence the landscape immensely. Seemingly endless fields of maize or sunflowers stretch to the horizon in places while, in other areas, large herds of cattle wonder around chewing the cud, mining headgear towers above the bush, or enormous blocks of granite lie tumbled at the base of disembowelled hills.

Though the economy of the North West is firmly foundedon agriculture and mining, which influence the landscape, seemingly endless fields of maize or sunflowers stretch to the horizon andlarge herds of cattle graze alongsideenormous blocks of granite tumbled at the bottomof disembowelled hills.

The North West`s claims to be the Platinum Province are not without justification.Some 2,050 million years ago, nature here formedthe Bushveld Igneous Complex, a geological phenomenon that created a subterraneanstructure of rare and now economically important minerals like chromite, vanadium andplatinum. Thanks to this fortuitous incident,South Africa mines more than half of the world`s chrome and platinum.