the new mine pit and mill were still under development earnings from uranium operations were slightly under 1970 levels lucky me ore mined during the year was generally of a lower grade than had been previously mined and was be low the normal mill feed grade ore of normal mill feed grade is expected to be produced from mining opera tions in 1972 unstable pit conditions at the shirley basin mine complicated by unusually high precipitation reduced ore deliveries to the mill and in creased stripping requirements remedial action consisted primarily of enlarging the pit in order to reduce the angle of the pit wall remove dis placed material and expose the ore to be mined additional heavy equip ment was committed to this work at the year's end the situation had been substantially corrected and both mine and mill were close to normal operating conditions it is expected that the output of the shirley basin mill in 1972 will approximate its design capacity of 2.2 million pounds of u3o9 the total planned production of the lucky me and shirley basin mills amounting to 4.3 million pounds of u3o8 annually at their combined output capacity has been sold on firm contracts for delivery during the next four years and more than 2.7 million pounds have been sold for delivery subsequent to the 1975 fiscal year it is expected that the demand for nuclear fuels will rise in the last half of the decade and that u3os will accordingly command higher prices during that period copper the company's interests in copper are represented by its new island copper mine and concentrator located at the north end of vancouver island british columbia canada where operations commenced late in the 1971 fiscal year and by its 25 equity in pima mining company which has operated a mine and mill near tucson arizona since 1956 copper concentrates were first pro duced from the island copper mine and mill in october 1971 on schedule as the culmination of two and a half years of intensive planning and con struction the start-up was gradual progressing by increments as the six 32 by 14 autogenous grinding units among the largest in the world see centerfold were completed in sequence and successively brought into operation as of november 1 1971 about half of the mill facilities and equipment was fully installed and operating the remainder will be in production by the 1971 calendar year end the completed mill or concen trator will have the capacity to pro cess 33,000 tons of ore daily and an annual output capacity of 230,000 tons of concentrates containing 55.000 tons of copper metal and 1,800 tons of molybdenum concentrates associated with the molybdenum are significant quantities of the rare element rhenium currently in de mand for use with platinum in the production of bi-metal catalysts used in petroleum refining its presence should enhance the value of the molybdenum concentrates produced the feasibility of extracting the rhenium and marketing it separately is under study and if the conclusions are favorable consideration will be given to the construction and opera tion of a process plant for rhenium separation and production of techni cal grade molybdic oxide 100 of island copper's production of concentrates during its first five years of operation and 63.6 during the second five year period have been contracted for by japanese smelting companies prices are based on london metals exchange quota tions at the time of shipment the first cargo of concentrates was shipped in december 1971 the nearby town of port hardy experienced substantial growth as the mine and mill approached completion and full operation to assure the availability of adequate and suitable living accommodations for project employees and their families a new and professionally planned com munity was developed as an integral above ion exchange section of uranium processing mill at shirley basin tanks and pipes are color coded to identify functions below left analysis to detect impurities in concentrates is an exacting laboratory task at shirley basin uranium mill below right after agitation in uranium precipitation tank at shirley basin mill product is thickened filtered and dried for shipment as u3o8