MINES AND MINERALS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE (1908)

This momentous magnum opus about mines and minerals of the British Empire contains 70 b&w photographic illustrations and consists of 36 chapters (South Africa, South Rhodesia, West Africa and the Sudan, Indian Empire, Ceylon, Malay States, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Yukon Territory; and other British Dependencies - Nigeria, British Central Africa, British East Africa, Uganda Protectorate, British Guiana, British New Guinea, Trinidad, etc.). Extended by appendices "Rand Dividends", "Mining in Natal", "Discovery of the Klondike" and others.

With six extensive chapters about South Africa, Transvaal and Southern Rhodesia containing a detailed description of mines, mining methods and mineral production:

- SOUTH AFRICA; Mineral Production in Five States (with sections: To the Zambesi, and Beyond; Industrial expansion; Records of achievement; Copper the first important metal; Little Namaqualand; Two producing companies; Methods of extraction; Natal coal; Orange River Colony; Transvaal's minor fields; Base metals; Abundance of coal; North-Western Rhodesia; Rhodesia Broken Hill; Copper production; Mining progress and financial depression).

- SOUTH AFRICA; Cape Colony, Orange River Colony, and Transvaal Diamonds (with sections: The power of De Beers; Simple tale of discovery; The alluvial diggings; Opening of Kimberley mines; Individual claim owners and suicidal competition; The master minds; Modern Kimberley; Diamond 'pipes'; Origin of blue ground and diamonds; Record hoisting; Mining methods; Weathering of blue ground; Washing and concentration).

- SOUTHERN RHODESIA; Mining Progress in Charterland (with sections: Systems of taxation; Commencement of mining development; Geological investigation; Massive ore-bodies; Conglomerate reefs; Classes of deposit; Productive districts; The low-grade wanderer; Globe and Phenix gold mine in Zimbabwe; Giant mines; El Dorado banket; Operating methods and costs; Power supply; Victoria Falls scheme; Transvaal and Rhodesian consumers; Base metals; Precious stones; Gem production at Somabula; Native labour; Pros-pects of industrial expansion).

- TRANSVAAL GOLD; Discovery and Development of the Rand (with sections: Production and prosperity; Pioneer fields; Pilgrim's Rest; De Kaap gold-fields; The salvation of the Republic; Discovery of "banket"; Early difficulties; The Rand's physical features; Geology of the field; Main Reef series; Genetic problems; Distribution of values; Decrease in grade; Augmented scale of operations; Expansion or contraction?; A common aim).

- TRANSVAAL GOLD; Rand Ore Extraction and Treatment (with sections: Technical uniformity; Typical reef sections; Dykes and faults; Diamond-drilling; Costly mine equipments; Record shaft-sinking; The deepest mines; Mining methods; Underground water; Ore-conveying; Metallurgical advancement; Crushing, sorting, and milling; Cyanide process; Fine grinding in tube-mills; The West Australian School of Ideas).

- TRANSVAAL GOLD; Questions of Administration, Labour, and Working Costs (with sections: The troubled times; Technical progress; Head office controls; Government influences; Transvaal Chamber of Mines; Exceptional richness of Central Rand; The great mining groups; Vast producers; Yields and dividends; Reduced working costs; Steam and electrical power; Water supply; Labour: white, black, and yellow; A charge recalled; Chinese and trade; A 'white man's country'; Total labour force and wages; Skilled labourers; Conditions of work; Native labour-supply; The future).

This is an extremely rare copy of this precious work, hard to find even in National and University Libraries - and the only copy selling on internet!

Original red cloth; Text in English; Collation complete - Frontispiece, Title page, xx, 403 pages, with 70 b&w photographic illustrations on 42 plates (many plates with two illustrations per page), plus 8 pages of publisher's adverts.; Ex-library copy. Original red cloth recently re-backed in red buckram, the spine ruled and lettered in gilt. New marbled end-papers. Binding is overall in very good condition, with some rubbing and fading to the boards mostly to the extremities, lower corners crushed. Ex-libris stamp to the page edges, upper page edges darkened. Text block/pages in excellent condition, clean and very bright with minor yellowing to the white margins, no foxing or markings throughout. Ex-libris stamp to the title page and little darkening from tissue guard. A well preserved copy.

Stokes, Brigadier Ralph Shelton Griffin (1882-1979) interrupted his private education to come to South Africa to take part in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) as a trooper in Paget's Horse. After the war he was employed by H. Eckstein and Company as a sampler and assistant surveyor on the Crown Reef Mine. A part-time position as mining editor of the Rand Daily Mail enabled him to continue his studies and to tour the mines of the British Empire, leading to a series of articles in the newspaper during June 1906 to September 1907. He also wrote a report entitled "Malay tin-fields; mining position broadly reviewed" (Singapore, 1906) and a substantial book, "Mines and minerals of the British Empire" (1908). In 1907 he again joined H. Eckstein, assisted with the valuation of the New Modderfontein Gold Mining Company, and worked on the Robinson Mine, Crown Mines, and in Eckstein's administration. He presented specimens to the museum of the Geological Society of South Africa in 1907. A few years later, in collaboration with J.E. Thomas, G.O. Smart, W.R. Dowling, H.A. White, E.H. Johnson, W.A. Caldecott, A. McA. Johnston, and C.O. Schmitt, he wrote "A textbook of Rand metallurgical practice" (London, 1912, 2 vols).

In 1920 he became superintendent of mines and assistant general manager of De Beers Consolidated Mines at Kimberley. In 1928 he returned to Johannesburg to join his old firm, which had meanwhile become The Central Mining and Investment Corporation, as consulting engineer and technical director. He became a director in 1944 and served on the board until 1959.

Stokes served on the council of the Geological Society of South Africa from 1929 to 1939 and as its president in 1934. His presidential address, 'The geological surveys and societies of the world', was published in the Proceedings of the Geological Society of South Africa (1935, pp. xxiii-xlii). He was a corresponding member of council of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa as early as 1913, served as joint vice-president from 1934, was elected president for 1937/8 and was elected an honorary life member in 1946. His presidential address dealt with the financial aspects of mining on the Witwatersrand. In 1954 he was president of the (British) Institution of Mining and Metallurgy and in his presidential address discussed 'Future resources and problems of the Witwatersrand Gold Field'. After his death the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (successor to the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of SA) established the Brigadier Stokes Memorial Award to recognise outstanding contributions to the mining industry. (https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=2736)

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