Many countries in Southern Africa (SA) are heavily dependant on their natural resources for subsistence and development. The quantity and quality of water, minerals, soils, forests, wildlife, fisheries and other biological resources are critical for human survival and as the main source of economic growth and expansion in the region. The prudent use of these resources is therefore of crucial importance to the welfare and future prosperity of the people of SA. Mineral resources are one of the natural assets that played a key role in the development and performance of many SA economies and continue to do so. This policy brief aims to evaluate the economic significance, current state and past patterns of use and exploitation of mineral resources in SA. The synthesis presented here is based on the results of three recent case studies adopting a natural resource accounting approach to analyse the condition and management of mineral assets in Botswana (Lange, 2000), Namibia (Lange, forthcoming and Lange and Motinga, 1997) and the Republic of South Africa (RSA)(Blignaut and Hassan, 2001).