iron ore share of sales dry long tons 6,319,000 7,946,000 7,512,000 iron ore is a naturally occurring substance from which iron can be economically extracted for use in the steel-making process from three projects located in the united states australia and new zea land utah directly and through its affiliates mines iron ore and supplies the product to steel producers worldwide the peruvian government's expropria tion of marcona's iron ore mine in july 1975 reduced utah's interests in iron ore over the short term but the company's position will increase when shipments from the new samarco mine in brazil commence in mid-1977 the iron springs mine located near cedar city utah was acquired in 1946 and is the oldest of utah's existing mines conventional open-pit mining methods are used but through employment of a unique traveling magnetic concentrator low-grade alluvial deposits also can be processed profitably lower customer re quirements as a result of a drop in steel production held shipments in 1975 to 431 000 tons compared to 555,000 tons delivered in 1974 and profitability from the iron springs mine was below the prior year's level utah also operates a nearby mine for cf & i steel corporation under a mining contract which extends to august 31 , 1979 under the terms of the agreement 951,000 tons of iron ore were shipped in 1975 compared to 880,000 tons in 1974 utah development company 89.2 owned by utah international holds a one third interest in mount goldsworthy mining associates a group involved in operating and developing iron ore prop erties in western australia the initial venture involved the construction of the mount goldsworthy mine crushing and shiploading facilities at port hedland and a 71-mile railroad to link the two installations following initial shipments in 1966 the operations have been ex panded on several occasions to include several new mining locations and have a current capacity of approximately 8 million tonnes although mount goldsworthy's ship ments of 7.8 million tonnes in 1975 were slightly higher than the 7.7 million tonnes delivered in 1974 the profit contribution was slightly lower price increases effected late in the 1974 fiscal year enabled mount goldsworthy to report favorable profit comparisons in the first half of 1975 however sharply escalating costs due to inflation and labor disrup tions and the inability to obtain further price increases resulted in operational losses in the second half of the year in 1975 the mount goldsworthy part ners concluded a major study to deter mine the feasibility of developing mining area c located approximately 210 miles from the existing port during the year a bulk sample of mining area c ore was shipped to potential customers in japan for their evaluation a decision on whether or not to proceed with the development of the project will depend on the mount goldsworthy partners success in obtaining the necessary gov ernment approvals financing arrange ments and long-term sales contracts utah's interests in new zealand are held through marcona which owns 75 of a company that utilizes a dredging operation to mine iron-bearing coastal sands after the sands are refined the concentrate as a slurry is pumped from the coastal facility to specially outfitted slurry ships moored 1.7 miles at sea 1975 shipments totaled 1.1 million tons which was equivalent to 1974 levels a complex of conveyors at utah's cedar city operations is used to blend iron ore to meet specifications for u.s steel's geneva works at orem utah using the furnace at left to determine the content of ore samples laboratory technicians watch closely for signs of sulfur one of the undesirable elements that can be present in iron ore