utah construction & mining co 100 bush street san francisco california contents page message to the shareholders 1 construction activities domestic operations e international operations s mining activities 13 land development and special ventures 15 affiliated companies 19 financial statements 20 directors and officers 24 on the cover the artist has created a montage to symbolize the diversified operations of utah its subsidiaries and affiliates depicted in the design are hydraulic dredging operations employed in land reclamation and port develop ment dam construction the integral factor of shipping in our affiliated peruvian iron ore operations engineering and construction of industrial plants and the basic tools of strip mining operations to the shareholders on behalf of your board of directors it is a pleasure to submit this annual report for the fiscal year ending octo ber 31 1959 earnings were the highest in the 60-year history of the company despite the work stoppage in the steel industry which adversely affected earnings in the fourth quarter of our fiscal year improved results were achieved in all principal phases of the company's activities in construction mining and land development change in name and authorized capital on july 29 1959 a special meeting of the shareholders was called for the purpose of considering and acting upon two proposed amendments to the certificate of incorpora 1 ) that the name of the company be changed to utah construction & mining co and 2 that the authorized capital stock of the com pany be increased from 2 million shares to 10 million shares the par value remaining un changed at 2.00 per share both proposals were approved by the shareholders and became effective on august 10 1959 in announcing these proposed amendments the board explained that the new corporate name would be more fully descriptive of the company's present opera tions since mining activities both domestic and foreign now provide a major share of its income with regard to the increase in the authorized capital stock the board explained that possible future uses of these new shares could include stock dividends mergers with or acquisition of other companies and a public offering parent company earnings earnings of the company reached a new high of 4,337,969 after provision for income taxes or 2.43 per share this compares with 1,907,718 and 1.07 per share earned dur ing the 1958 fiscal year previously earnings records were established successively in 1956 and 1957 respectively results from construction work performed by the parent company were disappointing for the year the vol ume of work performed was relatively low and much of our construction equipment was idle as a consequence our results from domestic construction continued to be