uranium pounds 3,520,000 5,475,000 2,215,000 since 1974 the long-range outlook for uranium concentrate producers has shown marked improvement recent quotations of over 30.00 per pound for product to be sold on a spot basis reflect a 300 gain over 1973 prices the increases have resulted from both near-term and anticipated longer-term demand reflecting a concern among buyers that industry capacity is not expanding at a rate sufficient to meet future requirements although market prices fluctuate utah believes future realizations comparable to present high price levels will be required to justify expenditures for exploration and dis covery of sufficient new reserves to sup port expansion and replacement of mine and mill facilities utah was able to take advantage of re cent price increases with a modest fourth quarter spot sale of 350,000 pounds of uranium concentrate the balance of the company's 1975 shipments was made under contracts entered into prior to the price increases of recent years although the majority of utah's production capac ity through 1980 is committed under such arrangements some contracts were renegotiated in 1975 to improve prices and to provide additional cost-escalation protection for utah shipment schedule delays to accommodate customers requests have also enhanced prospects for additional spot sales and improved realizations in 1976 and 1977 1975 uranium concentrate shipments of 3.5 million pounds were well below 1974's record of 5.5 million pounds which included delayed shipments from the prior year utah's uranium operations in wyoming have a combined production capability of 4.2 million pounds of concentrate per year the lucky me project in the gas hills has operated since 1958 as an open-pit mine and mill shirley basin properties were mined as early as 1 960 first underground and then using solu tion mining techniques in 1970 the shirley basin operation was completely redesigned as a new open-pit mine and mill with approximately the same capac ity as at lucky me in 1975 circuit changes were made in the shirley basin mill raising the throughput from 1 200 tons per day to 1 800 tons per day this enables the plant to process lower grade ores without reducing the output of uranium the value of the two existing mills is continually enhanced as plans for any new facilities are plagued by rising construction costs and inordinate delays caused by increasingly stringent environmental controls uranium content of ore samples from shirley basin and lucky me mines is measured by an x-ray fluorescence apparatus prior to sending ore through a hydrometallurgical process in the mills to convert raw ore to uranium con centrates a slurry of uranium precipitate is refined filtered and dried to yield yellowcake or uranium oxide