[citation needed] The mountains were named after the asbestos which was mined in the 20th century and is found as a variety of amphibole called crocidolite.

Veins occur in slaty rocks, and are associated with jasper and quartzite rich in magnetite and brown iron-ore. Geologically it belongs to the Griquatown series.

[citation needed] The Griquas, for whom Griquatown was named, were a Khoikhoi people who in 1800 were led by a freed slave, Adam Kok, from Piketberg in the western Cape to the foothills of the Asbestos Mountains where they settled at a place called Klaarwater.

[citation needed] John Campbell described the mountains in his book "Travels in South Africa: Undertaken at the request of the Missionary Society": Daylight discovered the beauty of the scenery that surrounded Hardcastle.

There are four long passes between the mountains, leading from it in different directions, which not only increase the convenience of the situation, but add greatly to the grandeur of the prospect around.

David Goldblatt from the University of the Witwatersrand wrote: Companies that mined asbestos in Western Australia and in South Africa were utterly contemptuous of the health of those who took the material out of the ground, those who milled, packed and transported it, those who lived anywhere near these operations, and of the land from which they took it.