Bibliography: pages 129-137. / This investigation was undertaken as part of an endeavour to design an ideal wear resistant material for particular applications. The research was aimed at the alleviation of wear in the gold mining industry. In order to achieve this objective it was necessary to examine the surfaces of worn materials in order to gain a better understanding of the different wear mechanisms and also to examine the extent and depth of deformation induced by abrasive wear. Numerous proprietary wear resistant materials and stainless steels presently used in the gold mining industry together with other materials were included in this investigation. The abrasion and corrosion- abrasion wear resistance of two particular proprietary wear resisting materials was determined to be superior to mild steel and attempts were made to explain the good performance of these materials in terms of micro- structural and mechanical properties. Various techniques were used to study the effects of low and high stress wear of materials which had been tested in both the laboratory and in-situ in the mines. These techniques include scanning and transmission electron microscopy, optical metallography and microhardness studies. It was found that as the nominal load on the abrasive increased, the mode of material became more severe, the depth of deformation increased and the surface hardness increased. Attempts were made to explain these phenomena in terms of microstructural considerations, work hardening capacity, phase transformations and recovery and recrys- tallization. This work has assisted in the specification of the composition and microstructure of steels which should provide improved performance in severe working conditions.