to our shareholders record earnings of 16,543,318 or 3.85 a share dividends increased in each of last seventeen years it is gratifying to report that utah construction & mining co continued to make progress in 1967 with earnings attaining a record level of 16,543,3 1 8 equivalent to 3.85 a share an increase of 26 over the 13,175,463 or 3.06 a share earned in 1966 this was the fourth successive year of increased earnings the quarterly dividend on utah's common stock was increased to a rate of 0.30 a share in june and in september an extra dividend of 0.20 was declared bringing total dividends paid in fiscal 1967 to 1.30 an increase of 18 over the 1.10 paid in 1966 this is the seventeenth consecutive year in which dividends have been increased sale of 25 million in convertible debentures utah has favorable international balance of payments backlog of mineral sales now stands at 1.1 billion 5 million pound uranium concentrate sale to ge your company is continuing to grow and to provide capital for expansion the board of directors authorized the sale of 25 million in convertible debentures this sale was successfully concluded november 21 1967 subsequent to the end of our fiscal year on october 31 1967 the terms of this financing were 25 years to maturity an interest rate of 5 and conversion into common stock of the company at 96.50 a share this was the first public offering of securities by your company in its sixty-eight year history with respect to its extensive international activities utah had a favorable balance of payments position in keeping with our country's national interest and policy our favorable balance for the year exceeded 8.9 million the company's backlog of mineral sales excluding the sales of its affiliates marcona corporation and pima mining co increased again this year primarily from two new contracts and now stands at 1,117,000,000 an increase of approximately 6 over that of last year the first of these contracts was an additional sale of uranium oxide to the general electric company the contract calls for ge to purchase 5 million pounds of uranium oxide for delivery at the rate of 1 million pounds backlog of mineral sales as of october 31 : record level earnings for uranium operations backlog of uranium concentrate sales of approximately 11 5 million pounds sale of 7.9 million tons of blackwater coking coal to japanese interests annually from 1971 through 1975 a prior sale of a minimum of 2.0 million pounds was made by utah to general electric in 1966 for delivery in 1969 and 1970 these concentrates will be produced at our lucky me uranium mill near riverton wyoming from ore mined on adjacent utah properties this year profits from uranium reached record levels on increased volume and lower unit costs as of october 31 1967 utah's backlog of sales of uranium concentrate for future delivery was approximately 11.3 million pounds up from approximately 7.5 million pounds a year earlier the current backlog figure includes the sale to general electric company and is adjusted to reflect the delivery during the year of 804,000 pounds to nordostschweizerische kraftwerke ag baden a swiss utility and 1 009,000 pounds to the atomic energy commission less than one third of the backlog is committed to the atomic energy commision for delivery at the rate of 1 million pounds per year through december 1 970 the remainder represents commercial sales to private industry the second important addition to our mineral backlog resulted from the sale of an additional 7,900,000 tons of coking coal from our blackwater mine in queensland australia to mitsubishi shoji kaisha ltd a japanese trading company this is the second sale of blackwater metallurgical coal concluded with japanese interests the original contract executed in 1965 provided for the delivery of 13,500,000 tons of coal over a ten-year period the new contract will increase these deliveries to 21,400,000 tons over the same period bringing total projected revenues from blackwater coal sales to approximately 210,000,000 consumers of this coal will be major japanese steel companies and a japanese chemical company the first shipment is scheduled for january 1968 and we expect to ship 700,000 tons during calendar 1968 increasing to 1,500,000 tons in the second year and 2,400,000 tons yearly thereafter construction of the first phase of the coal mining plant and facilities near the town of blackwater in central queensland presently is nearing completion