coking coal coking coal or metallurgical coal is characterized by special properties suit able for use in the steel making process utah's interests in coking coal oper ations are represented by an 89.2 own ership in utah development company an enterprise operating solely within australia the remaining ownership is held by utah mining australia limited an australian company owned by more than 8,000 shareholders utah development company currently operates four coking coal mines in the bowen basin of centra queensland blackwater the first mine developed is wholly owned by utah development with the mines at goonyella peak downs and saraji 85%-owned by utah develop ment company and 15 by japanese interests shipments from these mines in australia are made to japanese and european stee companies under existing long-term sales contracts price increases effective in january and september for sales to european customers and in april for deliveries to japanese purchasers significantly im proved the profitability of utah's coking coal operations the above price increases were established through extra-contractual agreements and reflect both a general recognition of higher world values placed on coking coal and an excellent relationship with customers as a result of the negotiated price in creases and through advances attribut able to the cost escalation provisions of utah's sales contracts the average price per tonne metric ton of coking coal shipped was more than 50 higher in 1975 than in 1974 however an australian government-imposed export duty of ap proximately 8 per tonne which applies to all of utah's coking coal shipments from australia after august 19 1975 served to moderate the benefits of the the new saraji mine in queensland designed to reach a 4.5 million tonne-per year production level made its initial shipment of coking coal during the first quarter and was an important contribu tor to the 1975 earnings improvement the 2,780,000 tonnes of coal shipped from saraji during its first year of opera tion enabled total shipments from the mines to increase from 12,165,000 tonnes in 1974 to 13,241,000 tonnes in 1975 the record level of shipments was achieved even though production and shipments from the blackwater goon yella and peak downs mines were below prior-year levels and well below expec tations as coal industry labor problems in australia had an adverse effect on performance beginning in june union imposed bans on overtime overtime is all work beyond a 35-hour week and bans on the employment of new labor resulted in a slowdown of operations these restrictions were adopted by the unions during their negotiations for higher wages on august 26 1975 with no reso lution of the problem in sight utah development company elected to sus pend the union employees at its goon yella peak downs and saraji mines until such time as the unions lifted their bans utah's action was in line with similar measures taken by a number of other coal mining companies in australia on september 17 1975 after a work stoppage of approximately three weeks operations were resumed at the goon yella peak downs and saraji mines as part of an industry-wide settlement in australia employees at utah develop ment company's mines agreed to return to work under the provisions of a deci sion handed down by the australian gov ernment's coal industry tribunal the settlement included the lifting of all bans on overtime and new labor and at the at the peak downs mine massive electri cally-operated draglines with bucket capacities of up to 65-cubic yards work around the clock to remove overburden and uncover the coal seam in the coal preparation plant coarse coal samples are analyzed to determine the extent of impurities and non-coking coal