Guimarães' interest in mineralogy, petrography and geology was inspired during his student years at the Ouro Preto Mining School by the lessons and assignments given by Professor Costa Sena.
His traveling companion was engineer Israel Pinheiro, who about 40 years later was a governor of the state of Minas Gerais, after doing managerial work for the construction of Brasília, Brazil's specially planned national capital city, from 1956 to 1960.
Guimarães' first professional assignment was not in the branch of geology, but rather in the construction of what is now Rui Barbosa Avenue through the old Viúva hill in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil.
The book was financed by CBMM (Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração), which owns the world's largest niobium ore (pyrochlore) mine, in the Barreiro area of Araxá, Minas Gerais.
CBMM created the Djalma Guimarães Medal to be granted to the best geologist graduated at either the Ouro Preto Mining School or the UFMG Institute of Geosciences in Belo Horizonte.