High Veld

High Veld, plateau region in South Africa. It is the highest and innermost of the country's plateau areas, descending in the north into the damp grasslands of the Bush Veld and in the west into the Middle Veld; it is bounded in the east by the Drakensberg and Stormberge ranges. The elevation of most of the High Veld is between 1200 and 1800 m (4000 and 6000 ft) but it rises to about 3050 m (10,000 ft) in Lesotho. It forms South Africa's main watershed, draining mostly westward by way of the Vaal River.

The High Veld consists of rock from the Triassic period (195 million to 225 million years ago) and from the Permo-Carboniferous period (225 million to 345 million years ago). It is largely grassland, and trees are rare. It is, however, extremely fertile, and maize (corn) is grown, along with about half of South Africa's potatoes. Cattle is raised on the High Veld, except in the extreme west. The region is also known for gold mining. In the 1870s and 1880s gold was discovered around Lydenburg and around Barberton, in what is now Mpumalanga province. The gold industry boomed again after World War II (1939-1945), and that area of the High Veld became extensively developed. Uranium is now found in the same gold veins. Diamonds are mined near Pretoria, and iron in Thabazimbi.