uranium prices for utah's uranium concentrate while improved over those received dur ing 1973 have not kept pace with in creased prices for other energy sources such as oil gas and coal this can in part be attributed to the long lead times under which uranium was sold in the past market prices for uranium have risen during the year keeping pace with prices of other energy sources but these higher prices will not be reflected immediately in utah's revenues because of the need to satisfy contracts entered into prior to the price increases of recent years the unreasonably long lead time required to plan license and construct nuclear power generating stations and the environmental difficulties en countered by utilities in the use of uranium as an energy source continue to slow down the development of the industry many eiectric utilities in the united states have also been faced with a severe capital shortage during the year as a result a number of nuclear plants have been delayed and some have been cancelled however as the financial outlook and technology im prove nuclear power should become more widely accepted as a safe clean and low-cost source of energy for much of the world's needs utah's two uranium mines located within 150 miles of each other in wyom ing have a combined production capability of 4.3 million pounds of con centrate per year the lucky me proj to expose the underlying a fleet of twenty 44-r.\ib\r overburden at tr m-bearing o y p lucky me mine in areas where concentrations sre defined by nt probing ect in the gas hills has operated since 1958 as an open-pit mine and mill the shirley basin properties were mined as early as 1960 first underground and then using solution mining techniques in 1970 the shirley basin operation was completely redesigned as a new open pit mine and mill of about the same capacity as lucky me shipments during 1974 excluding 230,000 pounds pro cessed by others from utah's ore were 5.2 million pounds of concentrate which far exceeded the 1 8 million pounds shipped in 1973 when some deliveries were delayed to accommodate changing buyer requirements existing contract commitments require utah to deliver virtually the entire output of the two facilities through early 1976 although shipments were at record levels during 1974 combined mine and mill production was below normal capacity mine production at both oper ations suffered during the year as the ore mined was of below average grade present uranium reserves are expected to be sufficient to allow production at present levels through 1980 at lucky me whereas shirley basin reserves can support operations beyond that time