lucky mc uranium corporation utah construction company owns a 60 per cent interest in lucky me uranium corporation which has extensive uranium ore reserves in one of the most important uranium producing areas in the country the gas hills district of wyoming during the past three years utah through wholly owned subsidiary com panies explored the lucky me properties and on behalf of the lucky me uranium corporation developed a sufficient tonnage of ore to justify the construction of a processing mill negotiated a concentrate sales contract with the u s atomic energy commission secured financing for the mil and accessory facilities designed and constructed the mill camp and mine plant and is now operating the mine and mill the year 1958 was of great significance in the short history of lucky me uranium corporation full scale open pit stripping and mining of the ore bodies was conducted throughout the year the mill commenced operations on february 28 1958 and has operated at greater than its rated capacity of 750 tons of ore daily ever since the first week results of all phases of the operation from the mining of the ore to the production of uranium concen trates have equaled or exceeded anticipated results lucky me net profits were reported at 2,935,987 for the twelve months ended october 31 1958 the undistributed share of utah construction company amounting to 1,761,592.20 the lucky me project was financed by a 10,000,000 bank loan backed by the obligation of utah construction company to pay any deficiencies arising under the bank loan agreement profitable operations and cash throw off from operations have enabled lucky me to accelerate repayment of the bank debt the balance as of the year end standing at 7,785,714 and indi cations are that the loan will be entirely repaid considerably prior to maturity the present sales contract with the atomic energy commission calls for delivery of 5,600,000 pounds of uranium oxide by march 31 1962 lucky me is currently negotiating with the a.e.c for extension of the sales contract to december 31 1966 and for the expansion of lucky me mill capacity recent months the stock of lucky me uranium corporation has from 4ys to 6 bid in the over-the-counter market indicating approximate value at the lower figure of 16,829,209 for utah's holdings the lucky me mill shown left above was designed and constructed by utah after the start-up period beginning february 28 1958 the mill averaged more than 1000 tons of ore per day fed to process the function of the lucky me mill is to obtain a product containing in excess of 75 uranium oxide and only minor impurities from ores containing only a few tenths of 1 uranium oxide and major impurities after the ore is crushed and ground sulphuric acid and other chemicals are used to dissolve most of the contained uranium next follows a series of decantation steps during which almost all of the remaining uranium in the.ore is dissolved and the resulting barren solids are discarded the uranium-bearing liquor is then filtered and passed through the ion exchange system shown at the right above here the uranium is concentrated into an enriched solution by the action of small beads of resin r enriched solution are then precipitated out and finally the uranium oxi take ready for filtering drying packaging and shipment