146 UTAH INTERNATIONAL: A BIOGRAPHY OF A BUSINESS earnest in late 1951 when Allen D. Christensen learned from Ted Takahashi and his partner George S. Ishiyama of an undeveloped reserve of iron ore in Marcona, Peru, just inland and 225 miles south of Lima. Utah had been seeking a strategic source of iron ore to satisfy a growing Japanese market, so Christensen dispatched Edgar White from San Francisco to Peru to learn more about the reserve and about La Corporaci6n Peruana del Santa (Santa), which the Peruvian government had chartered in 1943 to manage its raw materials. Edmund W. Littlefield described White “as having a great deal of patience—a must in international negotiations. He could sit in a hotel room for six months, if necessary, without blowing his mind.” White did not have to use that ability in Peru. Santa was simultaneously dealing with Bethlehem Steel, but Bethlehem’s management had canceled its plans to survey the site at the last minute, even after the Peruvian government had chartered a plane for the occasion. As a result, the government rolled out the red carpet for the Utah Construction official. White learned that the Peruvian government had declared the Marcona Plateau a national reserve in 1923 after geologists discovered its rich iron ore deposits. Hoping to use the range to develop its internal economy, the regime in Lima had formed Santa two decades later. Ambitious plans called for Marcona ore to be processed in a steel mill at Chimbote in northern Peru. Unfortunately, insufficient local assets and a lack of expertise forced Santa to consider exporting the ore through a concessionaire. With that information in hand, Christensen took the idea to understandably cautious Utah directors. The mine, more than five thousand miles away with no immediate markets, would require a considerable investment to develop. Littlefield explained that the company’s earlier experience with the problematic Argonaut mine “was the obstacle that we had to hurdle to get approval for Marcona.” Confident of the feasibility of the Marcona proposal, the executive committee (Marriner S. Eccles, Christensen, and Littlefield) estimated an investment of $6-7 million and urged the board to approve. Impressed with what it heard, the board empowered Christensen to negotiate a contract with Santa “for exploration, exploitation, prospecting, and development of the Marcona iron-ore deposits.”