1899, Curle, The gold mines of the world.

Condition : good, slight traces of moisture to binding, front endpapers and frontispiece, 6 ff. with tiny tear in upper margin. Overall a very good clean copy.
Illustrations : 35 black and white plates out of text, including the folding frontispiece, 27 plates and 7 plans.
Binding : publisher's red full cloth.
Volume : 1 volume.
Format : in-4.
Pages : 2 ff., 317 pp.
Publisher : London, Waterlow and Sons.
Date: 1899.

 After leaving Cambridge University in 1890, James Herbert Curle (1870 - 1942) went to South Africa, where he gained varied experience over the next nine years at the Nigel, City & Suburban, Ferreira and other gold mines in the Transvaal and Zululand, with an interlude spent inspecting properties in India, Australia, New Zealand and British Columbia for Sir Edgar Vincent. On his return to South Africa in 1899, he was consulting engineer to Sir Edgar Vincent and Cecil Rhodes, of whom he was an ardent admirer and close friend. He was appointed manager of Nourse Deep, Angels Deep, Knight Central and other mines, and inspected mines in Rhodesia. At the outbreak of the Boer War he left South Africa and over the next few years inspected a large number of mines in various parts of the world, including gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, coal and diamond mines. In all, he claimed to have personal knowledge of about 450 mines and as a result of this experience he wrote his famous treatise on "The Gold Mines of the World", which has been published in more than one edition in a revised and updated form.