exploration the acquisition and successful devel opment of mineral properties substan tially influences the long-term growth potential of a company involved in ex tracting minerals from the earth's surface accordingly geographical diversification and an emphasis on basic research and reconnaissance in explor ation efforts have been directed towards broadening utah's base and thereby en hancing future mineral development opportunities utah's exploration activi ties are conducted both through inde pendent searches and as a participant in joint ventures with industry partners in part as a result of continued un certainty regarding foreign investment policies in certain countries outside the united states the search for mineral commodities has been extended to in clude new geographic areas with inter esting potential sources of minerals at the same time exploration activities are continuing in a prudent manner in those areas where utah has traditionally been involved with the expectation that the public interest will dictate changes in national policies that are presently causes of concern exploratory investi gation is currently being conducted by utah either directly or through affiliates in the united states canada australia southeast asia africa brazil and the middle east in cooperation with utah's marketing and long-range planning departments assessments are continually being made of the future market potential of certain mineral commodities as well as evalua tions of geographic areas in which viable and successful mines may be es tablished the major thrust of the ex ploration program during the current year has continued to be directed to wards coal uranium and to a lesser extent base and precious metals com petition in the acquisition of energy related minerals has increased sharply and now has extended to include the ultimate consumers of such products who had not previously competed in the extractive industry considerable emphasis has been placed upon research and reconnais sance in the search for new deposits including the analysis of earth resource satellite imagery this high altitude reconnaissance contains a great amount of data relating to the reflectance of rock and plant material a study undertaken during the current year has been concerned with translating this reflectance data into parameters which may be useful in mineral exploration while it is not likely that this effort will provide the ultimate information in the search for mineable deposits it is expected to serve as an additional ex ploration tool in view of the markedly competitive situation prevailing for the acquisition of significant mineral properties an ex panded professional staff is directing its efforts towards achieving an appro priate distribution among mineral commodities as well as a diversity of geographic areas to assist in the ful fillment of utah's long-term growth objectives