For business generally and for international business in particular 1971 was a year to remember. If it was not a good year, it was at least an exciting year, a year of sudden and fundamental changes. It was a year of uncertainty in which confidence in the future waxed and waned and mercurial hopes and anxieties were reflected in sharp advances and declines in the stock market. It was a year in which the leading business indicators showed little progress and unemployment remained consistently high. Industrial production showed only slight improvement. Gross national product grew modestly except for the changes caused by inflation that continued unabated through the first eight months of the year. It was a year of relatively poor corporate profits and few segments of industry had a poorer profit performance than mining companies generally. On August 15 President Nixon moved suddenly and dramatically in an attempt to stem the tide of unfavorable economic developments. Wages and prices were frozen for 90 days. An import surcharge of 10% was put into effect. The dollar was detached from gold and the stage was set for the ultimate revaluation of foreign currencies and devaluation of the dollar. Phase II followed the freeze and now for the first time in peacetime the United States' economy is in large measure controlled by governmental bodies rather than the forces of the marketplace. The Presidential actions in the fields of international trade and international currency had profound and far-reaching effects on our own trade and that of our trading partners, and each country jockeyed for position in an effort to reshape its strategy to protect its national interests as it conceived these to be. Japan, Canada, and the European countries all saw their economies definitely and adversely affected. Now the currencies have been revalued, the surcharge lifted, the stage at last set for revision of the trading rules, and international trade is beginning to readjust in the light of the new rules as they are being written. 1971 saw a continuation of the concern for protection of the consumer and protection of the environment. Reflecting this concern the legislative hoppers were filled with bills, some soundly conceived and some so foolishly drawn that the cure prescribed would be worse than the disease. At the federal level alone during the year there were 17 bills under consideration to control and even to prohibit surface mining. Mine safety also had its share of legislative attention but typical of conflicting aims and goals was the failure of those who would bar surface mining to recognize that surface mining, as the record clearly shows, is five times safer for the miner than underground mining. 1971 was also a year of industrial strife that disrupted economies both here and abroad. There were strikes in the copper industry, the steel industry, the railroads, the waterfront, and for much of the year here in San Francisco we could not even bury the dead. In this economic climate most mining companies and particularly the non-ferrous segment of the industry fared badly. The early strength in copper prices was