queensland coking coal is strong and there are indications that it will re main strong further expansion of mining capacity and export facilities is accordingly being actively con sidered prospective new mine locations at saraji lying immediately south of the peak downs mine and at norwich park situated about 30 miles south of the saraji area are under investigation both appear to have excellent potential technical and financial studies have been com pleted with respect to the suitability of the saraji site the extent and quality of the coal reserves immedi ately accessible the mining railroad and port installations required and the estimated capital investment cost similar feasibility studies will be initiated with regard to the norwich park area iron ore shipments of iron ore and benefici ated iron ore products from all sources including the iron springs mine utah's 46 share of marcona corporation's shipments from peru and new zealand and utah develop ment company's one-third interest in shipments from the mount golds worthy mine in western australia totaled 6.95 million long tons in 1971 down 4 from the 7.24 million tons shipped in fiscal 1970 these ship ments consisted of high grade direct shipping ore pellets iron ore con centrates and sinter feed iron ore operations overall were profitable but at a lower level than in 1970 due to increased costs of production and shipping higher exploration expense work stoppages and the special costs incurred in starting up the new iron sands project in new zealand the iron springs mine near cedar city in southern utah is the first mining venture undertaken by utah for its own account and is also the company's smallest mining operation it employs modern methods and equipment achieves a high level of efficiency and has consistently con tributed to the company's earnings a feature of the project is a mobile concentrator of unique design used for preliminary field beneficiation of alluvial ores prior to plant processing during 1971 iron springs shipped 528,000 short tons of iron ore to united states steel corporation's geneva works near provo utah lower than the 600,000 tons shipped the year before chiefly because of a strike against the railroad and a threat of strike against the steel com pany in conjunction with the iron springs mining operation utah inter national performs stripping and mining functions for cf&i steel cor poration at its nearby comstock mine under a contract which runs until 1974 the combined iron springs-comstock operations re corded earnings for the year at sub stantially the same level as in 1970 subsidiaries of marcona corpora tion produced iron ore from two sources utah's 46 share of marcona mining company's shipments from peru was 4 million tons chiefly in the form of pellets and concentrates as compared with 4.5 million tons in 1970 periodic work stoppages inter rupted mine production and plant operation in the first three quarters of utah's fiscal year but labor condi tions improved after the government intervened and wage rates were stabilized by a combination of agree ment with the unions and a cabinet decree production resumed nearly normal levels prior to the year end the marcona mining operation re corded a slight loss for the year however as the result of reduced out put and shipments together with higher production and shipping costs in december 1970 marcona mining company concluded a special con tract with the government of peru which assured that a contemplated 25 million expansion of the com pany's mining and processing facili ties in that country would be accorded favorable tax treatment and other benefits under recent amendments to the mining code the expansion pro gram was accordingly authorized and above left workmen are dwarfed by big bucketwheel reclaimer at port stockpiles of mount goldsworthy iron ore finucane island above right operator keeps close watch on console and panel controlling mount goldsworthy's crushing screening stock piling and shiploading operations finucane island port hedland western australia below loading iron ore at iron springs mine operated by utah since 1943 blast hole drill in background