to our shareholders in 1975 utah international achieved its eleventh consecutive year of record earnings and its twelfth consecutive year of improved profitability this is the more significant because it was attained despite worldwide recession low copper prices uncommon production losses from industrial disputes a disastrous ocean shipping market and extraordi nary losses from the peruvian expropria tion of marcona mining company's assets in the face of these obstacles 1975 earnings were almost double those of 1973 and over three times those of 1970 1975 earnings gain net income exceeded 100 million for the first time for the 1 975 fiscal year ended october 31 utah reported record earn ings of 135,390,000 before recording a 23,809,000 extraordinary loss incurred as a result of peru's expropriation of the assets of a utah affiliate earnings after the extraordinary item were 111 581 000 these figures represent increases of 39 and 14 respectively when com pared with 1974 earnings of 97,632,000 on a per share basis 1975 earnings before the extraordinary item were 4.29 per share reduced to 3.54 as a result of the peruvian expropriation these results compared favorably with the earnings of 3.1 1 recorded for 1974 dividend raised cash dividends paid in 1975 amounted to 1 00 per share an increase of 41 % over the 71 cents paid in 1974 a year which in turn had shown a 56 increase in dividends over the 451/2 cents paid in 1973 the 1975 dividend establishes the 25th consecutive year in which dividends have increased and the 45th consecu tive year of dividend payments australian developments in april utah development company then 90 owned by utah international inc and 10%-owned by utah mining australia limited declared a special stock dividend pursuant to a new stock dividend program initiated by the company as a means of increasing australian ownership utah international elected under optional provisions of the dividend program to receive a cash payment and utah mining australia limited chose to receive additional shares thereby in creasing its ownership in utah develop ment company from 10 to approx imately 10.8 almost half of utah's assets are located in australia and these assets produced 72 of the company's gross revenues from operations in 1975 it is the indicated australian national policy to seek greater equity participation oppor tunities for australians in any new mining projects in australia accordingly utah will comply with existing policy as new projects are considered for development coking coal leads earnings gains earnings from australian coking coal made the largest contribution to utah's profit gain in 1975 shipments were greater because the new saraji mine came into operation in the first quarter of the year in keeping with sharply higher prices in world coking coal markets extra-contractual price increases were negotiated in 1974 and again in 1975 and the average prices realized were up more than 50 from 1974 metallurgical coal continues in a strong long-term position the portion of the price increases carried through to net income was re duced because the australian federal gov ernment imposed an export duty on high quality coking coal of approximately 8 per metric ton beginning with shipments on august 19 1975 the government also instituted a reduction in the corporate income tax rate from 45 to 421/2 which was effective for the entire 1975 fiscal year labor problems in australia held 1975 coking coal shipments below earlier expectations production and shipments in the latter half of the year were re stricted by a union-imposed slowdown and a subsequent three-week suspen sion of a majority of workers imple mented by utah along with other coal mining companies an industry-wide settlement with australian coal miners was reached in september resulting in operations returning to generally normal conditions by year-end peru expropriates marcona's operations on july 25 1975 the peruvian govern mi ii ions of dollars ment expropriated the iron ore mining properties and facilities of marcona mining company in peru marcona mining company is a wholly owned sub sidiary of marcona corporation which in turn is 46%-owned by utah in view of the uncertainties regarding any compensation for these assets utah elected to write off the full book value of its share of marcona's peruvian invest ments accordingly an extraordinary loss of 19,071 000 was recorded by utah in the third quarter the extraordinary loss was increased in the fourth quarter by 4,738,000 to reflect losses expected to be realized by marcona as a result of its need to redeploy on short notice its fleet of shipping vessels involved in the peruvian ore trade marcona has subsequently entered into a contract of affreightment with peru to transport iron ore from the former marcona properties the extent to which marcona's fleet will be redeployed will depend on peru's success in marketing the product united states government officials working together with marcona manage ment have met with the peruvian govern ment in an attempt to receive just compensation for the expropriated peruvian assets while it is premature to predict the outcome of these negotia tions any eventual recovery will impact favorably on utah's financial statements agreement to acquire samarco during the past several years utah seeking mineral investment opportuni ties has carried on a modest exploration program in brazil toward year-end utah began negotiations for purchase of marcona's 49 interest in the new 560 million samarco iron ore project now in the early construction stages the reduction of marcona's financial capa bility following the peruvian takeover had made it impractical for marcona to pro ceed with a development of such magni tude and transfer of ownership is expected in 1976 acquiring a 49 interest in samarco mineracao s.a a company 51%-held by a major brazilian company will give utah a meaningful participation in the mineral development of that country initial annual shipments now scheduled for mid-1977 are expected to be 5 million tons of pellets and 2 million tons of pellet feed other profit centers in contrast to 1974's unprecedentedly strong copper prices and resulting profit contributions this year's results from copper operations were sharply lower prices and profitability continue to be adversely affected by a worldwide over supply of copper inventories in our opinion this is a temporary situation which will disappear with economic re covery we view the long range outlook for copper with optimism the earnings of utah's wholly owned subsidiary ladd petroleum corporation improved considerably over the prior year results since utah's entry into the oil and gas business in 1973 support our view that diversification into this sector was a sound and timely move although higher prices were realized from iron ore product sales costs esca lated above earlier expectations par ticularly at the one-third-owned mount goldsworthy mine in western australia as a result 1975 earnings from iron ore operations were little changed from the prior year level although shipments were lower in 1975 earnings from uranium operations were comparable with 1974 because of the very substantial profit recorded late in the year from the sale of 350,000 pounds of uranium concentrate on the spot market at a price approximately three times that being realized from ship ments under existing sales contracts some progress has been made in renegotiating several sales contracts entered into prior to this year and before the very sharp increase in uranium prices utah's utility customers for steam coal experienced some mechanical problems at the four corners power plant in the current year as a result reduced re quirements for steam coal held ship ments and profits for the navajo mine below those of 1974 land development activities continued to be hampered by conflicting views among government entities and by regulatory rulings that curtailed or pre vented development resulting in land operations recording a loss during the 1975 fiscal year mineral sates backlog