financial comment stockholders equity and outstanding long-term debt have increased signifi cantly during the past seven years as expenditures for new mining projects have remained at high levels the sub stantial increase in stockholders equity in addition to earnings not distributed to shareholders has been provided from the sale and subsequent conversion of 55 million of subordinated debentures the sale of a portion of our australian operations for 20 million through a public offering in australia during 1970 as weli as from the equity of three com panies acquired in 1974 on a pooling of interests basis these mergers added an additional 59 million to the stock holders equity base as stockholders equity has increased higher levels of long-term debt have also been required to fund expansion commitments mining capita expenditures in 1974 continued at high levels totaling in ex cess of 128 million most of these ex penditures have been attributable to the new saraji coking coal project in aus tralia in spite of heavy capital expendi tures in 1974 a significant reduction occurred in long-term debt this reduc tion was possible because of the high levels of cash generated from opera tions particularly in the coking coal and copper areas mining capital expendi tures are expected to decline to approxi mately 65 million in 1975 based upon our present expansion program with cash flow forecasted to remain at high levels due largely to higher coking coa prices it is anticipated that long-term debt levels will decline further in 1975 reduction in loan commitments at the end of the current fiscal year utah had approximately 50 million of additional debt available underexisting loan commitments in addition to normal scheduled reductions required under existing credit agreements elections were made to reduce our loan commit ments by approximately 40 million during 1974 to reflect higher than ex pected cash flow from operations convertible debentures the remaining subordinated debentures were called for redemption in june 1974 as a result the 3.4 million outstanding at the end of 1973 from the original 30 million sold during 1968 through a public offering in europe was converted into common shares stockholders the number of utah stockholders in creased from 6,600 to 31 300 during the 1974 fiscal year this substantial in crease is the result of mergers during 1974 of ladd petroleum corporation clarcan petroleum corporation and lvo corporation into utah these stock holders live in all 50 states and in more than 20 foreign countries earnings per share the three acquisitions during 1974 were accounted for on a pooling of interests basis and therefore earnings as pre viously released have been adjusted to reflect the operations of the pooled companies these restated earnings by quarter for 1973 and 1974 are summa rized as follows earnings per share 1st .. 2nd 3rd .. 4th .. statement of consolidated income years ended october 31 amounts in thousands 1974 1973 notel income gross revenues from operations note 2 costs and expenses gross profit from operations equity in earnings losses of — affiliates note 3 joint ventures and partnerships note 4 interest other net note 1 ) gross profit and other income expenses general and administrative provision for employees retirement program note 5 . interest net of capitalized interest of 4,939 in 1974 and 1,569 in 1973 note 6 minority interest in earnings of subsidiaries income before income taxes provision for income taxes note 7 net income earnings per share note 8 501,227 320,722 332,359 234,304