direction erupted almost as soon as production commenced. The first disagreement arose and his helping hand. when O'Laurie and Barrett leased a two hundred-by-six hundred foot section of the Mi _ Vida claim to the G and G Mining Company without informing my father (who was out of town) or consulting Mitch Melich (who would have advised against the lease). Then in the early summer of 1953, a wealthy man named Dandridge made an offer of $5 million to purchase the Mi Vida mine for a group of Easterners. He was willing to pay $1 million down and the balance out of production. O'Laurie and Barrett wanted to sell out before the mine played out. My Dad refused to consider a sale before he knew the extent of the Mi Vida ore deposit. Ten other shareholders, who O'Laurie had previously sold 1,000 shares of his stock in Utex to after the mine began to ship ore, received $175,000 in principal payments. And Max Cohen, a Dallas, Texas attorney trousered $281,000 for his representation of Barrett and O'Laurie. Mr. Cohen was the first in a long line of lawyers who profited from the millions of dollars made at the Mi Vida mine. The terms of the December 12, 1953 sale and purchase of the stock provided for an - initial payment of $150,000 upon signing. The balance of the purchase price was to be paid within 10 years with interest payable semi-annually at the rate of 2.5 percent per annum By the time the offer expired, the Mi Vida mine had’ already shipped more that $1 million worth of ore and production exceeded 200 tons a day from the new decline that Utex had to share with the G and G Mining Company. As a geologist, my father realized that the Mi Vida ore deposit was not diminishing in size or grade. He firmly believed that it would eventually exceed a million tons. A noted Canadian geologist, Andrew K. McGill, my father's old boss and his professional opinion. Andy McGill had joined Utex and was on the geology and exploration potential of the extensive. claim mine. McGill thought that the Mi Vida mine was world class, about Bob Barrett's ability to manage the mine. In August, 1953, Charlie Steen was quoted saying that "We mentor from helping Dad block around but he didn’t Peru, shared get a handle the Mi Vida think much need to build a mill down here to process our ore. I will build a mill in Moab one of these days. It will also help to serve the many small miners in the area." It was estimated that a mill would cost between $3 million and $5 million. Dan O'Laurie refused to go along with my father's plans to build the first independently owned, modern uranium processing mill in America. He pointed out that Utex didn't have that kind of money and that the AEC would never negotiate a buying contract with a single uranium producer. — O'Laurie was also sure that the established uranium processing companies would never stand aside and let Utex compete with their highly profitable, government sanctioned monopoly. Lines were drawn and sides were taken. Barrett and O'Laurie thought of their interests in Utex as an investment. Charlie Steen thought of the Mi Vida mine as the investment of his lifetime. It represented his success against tremendous odds. Dad viewed his discovery as proof that all of the experts who had derided his abilities were wrong. He still harbored a grudge against the AEC for the things that the government geologists had said about him and his abilities. In fact, he would not allow any AEC geologists on the property. When the government wanted to inspect the source of all of that uranium ore that was over-crowding the buying station at Thompson, Charlie Steen insisted that no AEC geologists could be part of the team that mapped and sampled the Mi Vida mine. When he was quoted as saying, "You know, it's a funny thing. BeforeI hit pay dirt, people called me crazy. When I hit it, they called me a charlatan. Now that I've got it, they call me lucky," he was thinking about those same AEC geologists. And when people called him lucky he invited them to come try their luck. There was plenty of unstaked country on the Colorado Plateau for people who thought that all it took was luck to find uranium. Tempers finally boiled over in October. After a heated argument, my father told Dan O'Laurie to get out of the Moab office. Then he had the locks changed on the doors. Later that day, Dad and Mitch drove out to the mine to fire Bob Barrett as mine manager. In their view, Barrett may have been a good pinto bean farmer, but his mine management left everything to be desired. Dad seethed every time he thought about the millions of dollars that the ill advised G and G Mining Company lease was going to cost Utex. Things turned ugly and got physical between Barrett and Melich before that corporate meeting was ' concluded; but Barrett and most of his crew left the Mi Vida mine after my father officially fired him. This scuffle in the cook shack was always referred to as the "Battle of the Cook Shack" whenever the subject of Barrett and O'Laurie came up in conversations. Bob Barrett and Dan O'Laurie hired a lawyer to contest their ousters as corporate officers and directors; and they threatened to tie up the Utex Exploration Company by placing it in receivership. After things cooled down, Mitch Melich began negotiations to purchase Barrett and O'Laurie's shares in order to settle the dispute. My father grew impatient and made them an offer they couldn't refuse. He agreed to pay Barrett and : O'Laurie $175 a share for their 18,500 shares of Utex stock. The transaction cost my Dad $3,272,500 plus interest. Dan O'Laurie, who had been my father's boss when he was a teenaged water boy on a construction site in Texas, received $2,310,000 in principal payments for his $15,000 investment (his $30,000 loan had been the first money paid out of Utex's profits). Bob Barrett, who had known my father during his hungry prospecting days, received $787,500 in principal payments for his $4,500 investment Moab area’s canoe specialists In the mine: Charlie, Butch and Mark. on the unpaid principal. The sellers didn't make much money off the interest, because they were all paid off within a couple of years. They sold their interests in the Mi Vida mine before more than 1 percent of the ore body had been blocked out. — An article about the transaction that appeared in the Daily Sentinel quoted Charlie Steen as saying, "This settles an irreconcilable conflict of that, "Mr. Steen recently announced that he is Commission to build a processing plant at Moab." that my father had cy optioned the Big Buck interest." The story negotiating with The Daily Sentinel claims adjacent to went on to disclose the Atomic Energy also broke the news the Mi Vida mine. In the next installment, Mark will describe how Charlie Steen and Bill McCormick helped form Standard Uranium in order to develop the Big Buck mining claims. And he will tell how the Mi Vida mine's cook made $500,000 and why the claim jumpers missed a $50,000,000 opportunity. 60 N. 100 West For reservations @ LY canoe company I.c. guided trips . canoe school . sales HC 64 Box 3116 Castle Valley, Utah. 84532 801-259-7722 My morning coffee? Nope. This is the daily flow of the Colorado River, 800-753-8216 Experience the Center Cafe’ all day-+ we're now open at 7AM for breakfast at our new location with expanded services ina warm & relaxed atmosphere