Colonial mining policy of the Cape of Good Hope : an examination of the evolution of mining legislation in the Cape Colony, 1853-1910
Master Thesis
2009
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
The rise of the mining industry in the latter half of the nineteenth century transformed southern Africa. It facilitated the process of industrialisation and enabled the growth and advancement of the region's economy. Owing to the importance of South Africa's mineral revolution as the primary driver for economic development, this subject has assumed a strong theme in South African historiography. However, one subject that has been overlooked by historians is the development and evolution of early mineral law that sought to govern the burgeoning mineral revolution in the nineteenth century. This is a history of the introduction and evolution of mineral law in the Cape of Good Hope, the region of southern Africa where minerals were first discovered and exploited on a commercial basis. This history examines the development of mining legislation between 1853, when the Cape legislature implemented South Africa's very first mineral leasing regulations to regulate the leasing of land believed to contain copper deposits in Namaqualand, and 1910, when the Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State joined to form the Union of South Africa.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-123).
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Davenport, J. 2009. Colonial mining policy of the Cape of Good Hope : an examination of the evolution of mining legislation in the Cape Colony, 1853-1910. University of Cape Town.