8. double its uranium production, open up a new coking coal mine in Australia, and a new copper property on British Columbia, while financing its share of further expansion of the Mt. Goldsworthy iron ore property. Later decisions expanded this program still further with two additional coking coal mines in Australia, one of which is in operation and one still under construction. It was against this background that we arrived, somewhat reluctantly, at the decision to sell our heavy construction assets. It seemed imprudent to enter into the heavy borrowing required while leaving ourselves still exposed to the unpredictable and sudden reversals of cash flow that are necessarily associated with heavy construction. We also found that construction represented some 10% of our assets and 10% of our profits but occupied a disproportionate time of the Executive Committee and the top management personnel. Our reluctance stemmed from the fact that construction was the traditional business of the company, still provided the bulk of our gross revenues, occupied the attentions of over 40% of our salaried personnel and over 70% of our total employees. We sold the major portion of our construction assets in 1969 and fortunately found a buyer who wanted the people as well as the physical assets and good will. The dredging assets were sold in '71, and each of these transactions produced a non-recurring profit for Utah, freed us from the uncertainties of construction earnings and cash flow, and greatly simplified our management problems by leaving us free to devote our major efforts to our major mining profit centers. With the sale of the Construction Division assets in 1969 the transition of Utah from construction to mining was virtually completed. From 1949 through 1959 the company had earned $38 million and this had soared to over $128 million from '59 through '69. The company listed its shares on the New