204 UtTau INTERNATIONAL: A BIOGRAPHY OF A BUSINESS Lucky Me’s adjoining Pit 5A, the danger of flooding prompted an attempt to pump down the adjoining lake. Thus the “Lucky Mc Navy” came into existence, headed by its flagship the LMS (Lucky Mc Ship) Bowen, actually a float built to support pumps from Utah’s nearby Shirley Basin, where water was pumped from the basin’s underground mining area. As it flowed into the existing creek beds, benefitting local livestock and game, discharge from these pumps successfully kept the water table below the working level of the mine. In addition to such innovations, the Lucky Mc operation gained a reputation as a cost-cutting model, particularly through its use of specially designed hydraulic “wrist-action” buckets on the backhoe mining units, which lessened spillage during the swing-and-dump portion of the loading cycle. Developing this new method required close cooperation among Utah’s production, maintenance, and engineering departments and produced profitable results. Another cost-effective program involved monitoring the milling process with closed-circuit television. Also, in summer 1964, a new solvent extraction section went into operation, reducing the cost of PS iateecnreay As company officials became aware of health hazards connected to radioactivity and mining, they increased safety precautions at the Lucky Mc operation.