4. has continued to report record earnings and increased its dividends. In each year the market price of the shares has hit a new high and now the company is valued at over $1.2 billion in the marketplace. The stock was split three for one in 1969 and a two for one split will become effective in May of this year. The stockholders' equity has increased from $96 million to $271 million and the asset base from $178 million to $600 million. The company has brought into operation the three coking coal mines in Australia and the copper complex in British Columbia, built a new uranium mill at Shirley Basin and converted mining operations there from solution mining to open pit, and expanded its productive capacity at the Navajo Mine. Concurrently both Pima and Marcona also expanded their facilities. The mineral sales backlog, which stood at $205 million ten years ago and $1.1 billion five years ago, has now grown to over $3 billion. Having experienced the feasts and famines of the construction business for the first 50-odd years of our corporate existence, we have used our skills in the last 20 years to transform the company into one whose assets can increase in market value and whose earnings stream can grow at above average rates, largely under the protective shelter of long term contracts containing profit margin protection. The record during this period of transition has not been unimpressive. Earnings per share have grown at the compound rate of 14% for 20 years and 17% during the last five years. The dividend has been increased each year for the last 22 years. In each of the last ten years earnings have increased and in the last eight years they have achieved new record highs. The stock has ad-vanced rapidly in price and achieved new highs in every year since 1964.