Coronado Global Resources Inc.

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Coronado Global Resources First Quarter Investor Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a discussion of results from the CEO and CFO, followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Andrew Mooney, Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining Coronado's first quarter investor call. Today, we released our quarterly report to the ASX and SEC, in which we outline our production and sales volumes, as well as other key information related to our safety results, coal markets, and financial performance. A more detailed outline of our financial position and results will be released to the market on the 9th of May with our Form 10Q earnings release. Today I am joined by our Managing Director and CEO, Gerry Spindler, our Group CFO, Gerhard Ziens, and Australian COO, Douglas Thompson. Within our report, you will see our notice regarding forward-looking statements and reconciliations of certain non-US GAAP financial measures. We encourage you to review these statements in conjunction with our other filings with the ASX and SEC. I will also remind everyone that Coronado quotes all numbers in US dollars and metric tonnes, unless otherwise stated. With that, I'll hand the call over to Jerry.

Thank you, Andrew. The Coronado team performed well during the March quarter, delivering quarter-on-quarter higher revenues, improved liquidity, and balance sheet strength, and improved safety results. In addition, the team completed substantial rehabilitation works at our Logan Mines. completed key maintenance activities at Cura, and continued to progress our organic growth plans successfully. March quarter production and sales volumes were lower than prior quarter, but remained firmly on plan. January and February production and sales were lower quarter on quarter due to the maintenance activities at the Cura mine, in addition to unforeseen impacts of elevated wet weather and rail logistics chain issues. However, March's monthly production volumes were strong, as the wet weather subsided in Queensland, allowing for better operating conditions. In the month of March, Cura achieved run-of-mine coal production of 1.2 million tons and saleable production of just short of 1 million tons. During the month, the Overland Conveyor set a new record, transporting 1 million tons of material to the preparation plants from the Cura North operation. With more dry weather forecast and key maintenance activities behind us, we anticipate solid production rates from Cura in the coming quarters. During the quarter, progress was made on our organic growth projects, with Capital Works continuing at the Buchanan Mine to expand the raw coal storage area and install a second set of skips. At Cura, work continued on progressing the Cura North Underground Met Coal Project and our Emissions Reduction Gas Pilot Project. These projects underpin our organic growth plans to reach 20.5 million metric tons, per annum of saleable production by 2025, and they remain on target. Coronado's annual general meeting will occur on the 25th of May, 2023, Australian Eastern Standard Time. At the AGM, Douglas Thompson will officially be appointed as my successor as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company. I again congratulate Douglas on his appointment, and I look forward to working with him and the board in my new role as executive chair. Before I go into detail on our operations, I would like first to provide an overview of our safety results. The safety and well-being of our people continues to be Coronado's number one priority. In Australia, the 12-month rolling average Total reportable injury frequency rate as of 31 March was 3.18 compared to 3.92 as of 31 December 2022. Year-to-date rates reflect a 19% improvement on the year-end 2022 rates and are their lowest since April 2022. In the U.S., the 12-month rolling average total reportable incident rate as of 31 March was 2.43, compared to 2.42 at the end of December 2022. The group total reportable incident rate improved to 1.31, compared to 1.41 at the end of 2022. I am pleased to announce that the Buchanan Mine Preparation Plans achieved 1 million hours and 10 years injury-free during the quarter. This is a tremendous effort by the team, and I congratulate them on their continued strong commitment to safety. In addition, we have been notified that many of our U.S. operations achieved industry awards for strong safety performance in 2022. New and revised health and safety initiatives continue to be implemented across Coronado operations quarterly. In Australia, Cura has implemented upgrades to its digital platform to support the safety health management system, and it continues to implement measures to enhance its safety culture. Increased training initiatives continue at Cura and the U.S. Mons. with an enhanced focus on hazard identification and mitigation plans. During the prior year and into 2023, the Cura team has been working on a dragline proximity awareness project to devise and implement technology solutions to improve proximity awareness in the operating area of the dragline fleet. The technology utilizes radar and LIDAR imagery to alert a dragline operator when personnel or equipment enter the operational areas of the machines. The outcome of the project has been to effectively reduce the risk of personnel and equipment interactions with the draglines to promote an enhanced fake work environment. A rollout of the technology On all of Cura's dragline, fleet is expected by the end of the year. Turning to our operational performance, Coronado completed the first quarter with group run-of-mine coal production of 6.2 million tons, saleable production of 3.7 million tons, and sales volume of 3.7 million tons. The U.S. operations had an excellent production quarter, with both run-of-mine coal production and saleable production 14% and 10% higher quarter-on-quarter, respectively. The Buchanan and Logan mines were not impacted by adverse weather conditions during the quarter. However, they were impacted by some rail logistics chain delays at the end of March, which saw some sales slippage into April. the Eagle No. 1 mine and Winifred mines at Logan set new production records in March. The Australian operations delivered run-of-mine coal production and saleable production of 2.7 million tons and 2.1 million tons respectively, both down on December quarter but remaining on plan. During the March quarter, the Curra mine undertook major maintenance activities on the Overland Conveyor, shovel, and the mine's largest and most productive drag line. These maintenance activities, combined with the impacts of extensive wet weather in the Bowen Basin on already saturated ground in January, contributed to the lower production quarter on quarter. Sales volumes for the group in the March quarter were 3.7 million tons, 8% lower than the December quarter. Sales volumes from the Australian and U.S. operations were 2.2 million tons and 1.5 million tons, respectively. The U.S. operations realized an inventory build late in the quarter with slippage of some sales tonnages into the June quarter. The sales profile for Cura in the March quarter was lower due to the impacts from lower production and a train derailment on the Blackwater Line in late January, which impacted the coal supply chain to the port of Gladstone. The Curramine utilizes the Blackwater Line and subsequently could not rail any coal to port for two weeks while the rail line repairs were undertaken. Following a slow ramp up, the rail line is now back to operating at normal capacity. Despite lower sales and production rates in January and February from completed maintenance, wet weather, and train derailments, the month of March proved to be a much more positive result for the company as the weather conditions improved at Cura and as the mine commenced benefiting from the maintenance works program completed earlier in the quarter. Group saleable production for the month of March was strong and on an annualized basis exceeded the top end of the full-year production guidance. Coronado anticipates continuing to deliver improved production performance and maintains existing guidance if drier conditions continue into the June and September quarters. I'll now hand over to Gerhard to talk to our financial position and market outlook.

Thank you, Jerry, and good day, everybody. As Jerry stated in his opening comments, the first quarter saw us generate higher quarter-on-quarter revenues and generate cash flows to further strengthen our balance sheet and liquidity position. Marked quarter group revenue was $766 million, reflecting a 7% increase over the previous December quarter. the increased revenue comes from higher pricing despite lower sales volume. The group realized Metcor price for the quarter was $240 per ton, which is an increase quarter on quarter of 8% and reflects the blended realized price for all qualities of Metcor sold on an FOB, FOR, and domestic pricing term basis. And as of 31st March, the company's net cash position increased to 256 million U.S. dollars, up from 92 million at the end of 2022, and we maintain available liquidity of just under 600 million U.S. dollars. Our net cash position consisted of a closing cash balance of 498 million U.S. and outstanding bonds totaling 242 million U.S. dollars. The first quarter average mining cost per tonne soil for the group were 101.6 U.S. dollars per ton. Higher costs per ton on outcome of the G-Nominator here. The production at Kawa will see higher levels in following quarters following the maintenance work above average wet weather in January, particularly in subsequent rainy arraignment on the Blackwater line, plus continued impacts of high inflation. So first quarter capital expenditure of 42 million U.S. dollars was down 5% compared to the prior December quarter. Capital expenditure in the quarter was mostly related to sustaining and growth expenditure at our U.S. operations. Capital expenditure at power was lower than planned in the quarter given the wet weather impacts with some words slipping into later quarters. So today, Coronado reaffirms previously announced full year 2023 guidance for saleable production of between 16.8 to 17.2 million tons for the year. Average mining cost per ton sold between $84 and $87 per ton. And capital expenditure of between $260 million and $290 million U.S. dollars, subject to any unforeseen weather events, of course. Coming to coal markets, during the March quarter, met coal pricing across the board was higher. The benchmark Australian premium low were hard coking coal. Average index price for the March quarter was $344 per ton, up from an average of $278 per ton in the December quarter, and that's about a 25% increase. The U.S. East Coast average index price for the March quarter was $313 per ton up from an average $272 per ton in the December quarter. And given higher index prices in the March quarter, we believe that MEDCOR price realization in the June quarter will be higher than the March quarter due to the average three-month lag in price realizations that are always mentioned. So since March, MEDCOR prices have fallen. With the Australian HCC index price currently today at $232 per tonne, coming down from $250 yesterday, but remaining well above the long-term average price of $191 per tonne. And the recent fall in prices is linked to the increase in supply from Australia as the Bowen Basin exits the wet weather season. Prices may increase. Prices may remain volatile in the short term, I have to say. However, the STX forward curve projects average prices to remain at around $240 per ton or even north of that for the remainder of the year. The global economic environment and steel demand outlook continues to be impacted by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and persistently high inflation rates. Coronado expects met coal prices to continue to remain above long-term historical averages, supported by elevated thermal coal prices. That includes also TCR prices. The removal of Russian met coal from key markets and the anticipated improvement in steel demand in the second half of this year. Australian met coal exports to China have recommenced with 418,000 tons of product being exported to China from Australia in the first quarter. China's return to importing Australian met coal is expected to displace lower quality and higher cost Chinese domestic or other U.S. met coal production, particularly to the Chinese steelmakers in the southern regions where a significant sea freight advantage for Australian met coal exists. Demand for Coronado's U.S. Buchanan brand is expected to remain strong in China as well, given the low ash, low sulfur characteristics of the coal and long history of reliable and consistent supply into the Chinese market. And we expect the resumption of Australian medical imports into China to improve market dynamics down the track, as well as increased competition for Australian coal. that will likely ensure C1 prices to remain elevated in the short term. Coronado's metal remains in high demand with customers occupancy remaining firm and annual contracts with long-term customers renewed for both Australian and our US products. I now hand back to Jerry to discuss the progress of our growth projects. Jerry.

Thanks Gerard. Since inception, Coronado has grown via a series of acquisitions of high-quality met coal mines and continues to investigate opportunities to acquire met coal assets. The company has a proven track record of successfully integrating and operating new assets and has delivered more than $1.5 billion in distributions to shareholders since lifting on the ASX in 2018. Coronado targets assets in Australia and North America that are cash accretive from day one, move the group down the cost curve, and hold the potential to deliver above-average returns to shareholders. For the company to maintain maximum balance sheet flexibility, cash is conserved and no dividends have been declared this quarter. Subject to the company's dividend policy, which includes assessments and outcomes of potential inorganic growth options in the future and ongoing operational performance and market conditions, the Board may declare dividends in future quarters. Looking at our organic growth pipeline, capital works at our Buchanan Mine continue during the March quarter. We are currently investing in the construction of a new surface rock old storage area, to increase the mine's capacity and reduce the risk of the mine becoming stockbound by any potential logistics chain delays. The mine is also progressing with the construction of a second set of skips to ultimately increase the mine's hoisting capacity to the surface. Growth plans at our U.S. operations to produce 7 million tons by 2025 remain on target. On the Kura Underground, turning to Kura, the Kura North Underground Met Project completed pre-feasibility study works in late 2022. Results from the study were positive and determined that the project was worth pursuing and subsequently ranked higher than other organic open-cut expansion options at the mine. The underground project now forms part of the mine's plans, to reach the 13.5 million ton per annum by 2025. It is envisioned that the project will achieve first coal in late 2024 and produce a quality of met coal similar to the existing Cura North open cut operating area. The project will utilize the final open cut high wall to gain direct access to the coal seams. thereby significantly reducing capital expenditure requirements and the startup risk. Phase one of the project will utilize two continuous miners via a board and pillar operation. An exploration program has commenced to increase information in relation to gas, geotechnical qualities, and coal reserves. An operational readiness team has been established consisting of project management, engineering, environmental, geotechnical design, and procurement specialists. During the quarter, Coronado performed 1,200 meters of exploration drilling across six drill holes for gas, geotechnical, and washability information. A fourth exploration drill rig was mobilized to site in March to make up for delays due to wet weather and flight access. Coronado has also made progress on the gas pilot project at Cura during the quarter. The project is targeting the capture and use of waste mine coal gas as a diesel substitute for our operating fleets. Drill contractors have completed two vertical drill wells that are cased and suspended Drilling of a third vertical and lateral wells is currently underway. It is envisioned that a fleet of five to six trucks utilizing the extracted gas will occur in the first half of 2024 when the wells come online and are producing sufficient gas to run the fleet. It is anticipated that this will realize a reduction in emissions, but also a reduction in costs. given the substitution of diesel for gas to power the fleet. The gas pilot project forms part of Coronado's greater strategy to reduce emissions from open-cut mining operations and reduce energy costs by investigating potential investment strategies into wind, solar, and or gas projects. More details regarding the gas pilot project will be available in our 2022 Sustainability Report, expected to be released in May. I'll now hand back over to the operator to take any questions.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Chen Jiang from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, Jerry and Gui Hart. Thank you for taking my question. Just by looking at your cash cost, it has been quarter over quarter in the last, I would say, a few quarters. It just kept increasing. I'm wondering how we're going to expect your cost to increase To normalize, we'll understand the derailment and the weather impact and proportionally how much is due to supply disruptions in the first quarter and how much is due to inflation, labor, et cetera, et cetera. If you can give us more clarity on that, that would be great. Thank you.

Yeah, let me take this. So, look, Chen, first of all, good morning and great to hear you. Great to see you online. The thing is, this one is just a story of the denominator at the moment, at least quarter on quarter. So the 101.6 US dollars per ton, if we adjust that for the volume we produced in the prior quarter, and look in the short term, we have to assume that most costs are fixed, then the cost would be adjusted sitting at around $85 per ton. If you compare that to the same quarter last year, then you see an 11% increase of the unit costs. So there's definitely an inflation impact in there, and the 11% fits right into the inflation story that we see across the board in Australia and in the U.S., particularly in the U.S. But the quarter-on-quarter cost performance is related to the denominator, the tons. And so, therefore, when you look at the cost performance, therefore, we are still comfortable with the guidance we have provided to the market for the four-year outlook.

Thanks for that, Gerhard. So I understand what you're saying. By looking at the next three quarters to achieve your guidance, it seems like very, very stretchy because you have 17% increase in cost quarter over quarter.

Yep. At the moment, it's clearly just the story of the denominator. It really relies on that the weather performs as we expect. Everyone is saying they're coming out of the wet season, they're coming out of La Nina, and we're all not weather forecasters, but it looks pretty promising, particularly when you look at the month. If you deliver in the same way we delivered in March and all indicators are showing that we will, then we don't see any issues with the cost guidance at all.

Right. Thanks for that. Maybe just a follow-up on that. How should we think of your long-term cost from here? Because, you know, cost has been increasing, I would say, in the last few years. And then your past performance is no longer a good indicator from a modern perspective. Thank you.

Yeah, no, look, I understand the concern. But first of all, we are in line with our competitors here, you know, so we can see that's not a Coronado effect that is really in line with what we see across the board. And what we see across the board is inflationary impacts, you know, and the unproductive impacts are coming from things like wet weather and maintenance issues. But to the point, you know, when you look at, look out a few years, you know, then we have to see like, what is inflation going to be? And at the moment, we do see inflation is probably coming down a bit. But this year, we continue to see relatively high elevated inflation. So it all depends on this at this point, you know, and then You also need to see one of the biggest input factors in mining for us and for everybody else is labor, it's energy, it's explosives, you know, and they're all linked to inflation and we just have to watch that space carefully. At the same time, you know, before we are getting too concerned about margins here, of course, cost plays a big role. The thing is that, you know, we see across the board in the bone basin, but also in the U.S., the two biggest met coal producers, they have seen inflationary impacts, not only mining costs, but also we see other cost impacts that royalties went up in Queensland, right? Now, whereas I would be concerned for the margins as that would be in other regions for the world's biggest met coal exporter, that is Australia, 55 to 60%, this will all become part of the price base, right? So all of the inflationary impacts will be reflected in the price, and we have seen the long-term price going up from $178 per ton to now $191 per ton. I think going forward, the $200 or $210 is probably the old $178 per ton long-term price or floor, absent, of course, of some economic factors. If you have economic downturns and it might be you might see a little bit of more volatility there.

And Gail, if I could jump in and add, what's structurally different to us and a few of our competitors is by 2026, our Stanmore Royalty structure changes and they will set our cost curves to be different relative to others.

Thanks for that. Maybe a question for Jerry, please, if you can comment on acquisitions. By looking at your recent acquisition news in the last 12 months, it seems like your talks were focused from U.S. They were all like U.S. coal mines or companies versus Australia. There are opportunities from Australia. I'm wondering what's the thinking from here and what's your thinking of expanding your portfolio in Australia? Thank you.

We'll focus our investments where we think we can get the best returns. We remain highly focused on Australia, although I have to say that the Queensland royalties and the You know, the other cost increases have heightened the U.S.' 's attractiveness for all producers, not just us.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Young from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, Jerry, Gerhard, Doug, and Andrew. I've got a few minor questions on the quarterly itself, but I just want to actually start with a question on inorganic growth. And I guess it's not a Coronado call without a question on this. But I guess the first point is thanks to, I guess, the outlining, Jerry, the articulating, I guess, the approach to M&A a little bit with respect to looking at cash being cash accreted from day one. That's helpful. Can I just ask the first question just on the news this morning around ACNR's Oak Grove underground mine in Alabama and it's a 4 million tonne per annum mine, looks export and domestic, but Alabama is a long way from West Virginia and ACNR does do about 50 million tonnes a year from quite a few operations. So I'm curious about what's the attraction for Coronado looking at this mine in Alabama?

Doug Gerhardt, you want to give your comments on that?

I'll follow on. Firstly, Paul, thanks. Look, Alabama geographically is separated from where operations are. But as you know, we've got a team in the United States who are very capable in running underground mines. They've got a proven track record, and we've progressively been building mines additional capacity as we've built up that team over time. So the ability to stretch and take in additional moments is well within our grasp. We've been building on this intentionally as we've been planning to grow the business. The attractiveness to the operation, there's a number of things that make it attractive. We've had a look at it, and as indicated in our release, we've decided that we're not going to go forward with the opportunity at this stage. But the coal makes sense in addition to our business. There's good blending. There's synergies in the way in which we run operations and where we've seen operations in the past and been able to take advantage by improved mine planning, the way in which we look at ventilation around mines and our mining methods and approach to the way in which a mine like this can be taken up the production curve. And we'll look at all our operations through similar lenses. But as noted today, we've had a look and we've ceased discussions with them at this stage, and that will continue. We are out looking at operations, so engagement will occur.

Yeah, okay, thanks, Doug. And then maybe turning to organic projects, just a few, I guess, questions just to clarify a few things. Just firstly on Buchanan, with the second set of skips, when is actually completion due on that project? And from a run-of-mind perspective, can you just remind us what that... what run of mine production will increase at Buchanan 2 post-completion?

So when we finish the projects that we're doing, we'll take the operations up to seven and a half, so from normally six up to seven salable. And the intent is to have these projects completed by 2025. And it really looks at three areas. One is first the above-ground storage, and that's to de-bottleneck the mine from rail logistics. ensuring that we do not have to stop operations because there's anything on any impacts from the downstream from the mine. The additional hoisting capacities to match the underground capacity, we've clearly proven that that mine can mine at a rate that has created the hoisting capacity as a bottleneck. And this project is to de-bottleneck that. So it's a great step forward. You don't have to run the operations hard. You're actually enabling the operations. And the last portion of the project is in the prep plant to get additional throughput that will match the capacity that comes out of the mine.

Yeah, okay, thanks. I'm still modelling for what it's worth, Buchanan and Logan separately, so that's why I'm interested in the run of mine number, you know, from Buchanan. But I can talk to Andrew after on that. Now, just maybe moving to the Currah underground project, and great that you've given us the, you know, first production target late 2024, and And Jerry, you spoke through some of the scope in that project, but I'm still, you know, scratching my head around the fact that you've approved this project effectively, but we've got no CapEx estimate, unit cost estimate, or impacted car, and no volume estimate. Can you help us with those three, if possible, please?

Yes. At this stage, we don't want to go to market and talk about the project as we're going through the final approvals of the board, and I'll elaborate that on bit more and then at next quarter we'll be in a strong position to give you the information you're looking for but you know we spoke of building the Winifred mine in the United States about 12 months ago and as reported that mine now has been up and running and in the last quarter broke a record so it proves the business's capability of bringing projects like this out of the ground and and delivering within CAPEX and production profiles. So we've got the confidence that the business has the whereforeall and the skills to deliver projects of this nature. As we've spoken about previously, late last year, the pre-fee that we went through proved that the project won out on our other opportunities. We still do have ZPIT as a study and growth opportunity and likewise expert, and those will be matured over time. But the underground at Curran Oath Windsor, for the points you raise, from a capital perspective, launching the project off the high wall, and we've done this before as per the Winifred, proven capability and understanding of what it'll cost to do a project like that. And our initial start of the project will be with two continuous miners, Board and Pillar. The part of the mine that we're targeting in the first phase will be about 13.5 million tonnes And the reason why we're targeting that is we know what the gas looks like in the area. It's low gas content and it's got low cover. So we're taking a low risk approach and we'll take a modular approach as this project moves through phase one into phase two and phase three. As Gerry mentioned, we're still doing some gathering up information. As you know, our geological model supports an open cut mine. This is in full drilling. to ensure the information that we've built our pre-fees on and the mode plan we've got at the moment is further informed. And then the last step to that is obviously ensuring that we've got all of our approvals in place and we're diligently working through that as well. And that sets primarily the timeline for late 2024 for first coal in a reasonable expectation for approvals.

Okay, thanks, Doug. Yeah, that's really helpful. We'll wait till next quarter for further information. And last one for me, maybe it's one for Gerhard, just around, yeah, the free on rail achieved price in the US relative to what Buchanan averaged in the FOB basis of Buchanan benchmark coal that is, which was, I think, above $300 a tonne for the quarter. You know, it's obviously the interplay there with domestic sales versus export. But I'm just curious, is there any colour you can give us on what rail and port charges are? are doing in the U.S. for the percentage of the headline price or dollar per ton or anything. Thanks.

Yeah, without giving away the secret sauce, I think in general you can almost say that the rail charges equate to about 18% of the FOB price. But that also depends on how you negotiate with the railroads. You can fix it at lower levels as well.

Yep, that's good to hear. And that's rail and port, or was that just rail?

Yeah, just rail.

All right, thanks very much, gents. That's it for me.

Thank you. Your next question comes from George Eadie from UBS. Please go ahead.

Thanks, team. Just wanting to follow up with a question on capital at Buchanan again. So you said completed by 2025. Just wondering if there's any colour we can get on the CapEx profile, so is it spent over 23, 24, 25 evenly? And maybe just checking on CapEx even further out at Logan, if there's anything further out we should be thinking about.

Good, I'll let you lead off, Horner, and fill in if you want.

Listen, we don't provide CapEx guidance. per site, but you can expect that most of the CapEx will be consumed between now and 2024. We need to look at whether we may provide more guidance on the CapEx profiles for Buchanan and Cala.

Okay, thanks Gerhard. And maybe just Logan, is there any capex we're looking at there of note coming forward besides sustaining obviously?

Most of it is sustaining.

All right, perfect. Thanks gents.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Glyn Lawcock from Baron Joey. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Gerri. Maybe I just misunderstood a little bit of the answer to Paul's question, and obviously we'll wait for all the details around the underground. But you say it's now going to form part of the 13.5 million tonnes. So what are we not doing now? What have you given up to now change focus and go with the underground at Curragh?

Glenn, maybe I'll step in and Gerry can add to it. The project to go to 13.5 and beyond that that we had in scope was to 15, and we haven't abandoned that yet. To be clear, it was ZPIT. There's an opportunity for another box cut development at ZPIT. We've compared the two projects against each other at this stage on a capital basis and speed of product to market. the underground wins out because as you'd imagine as we launch the underground from the high wall we're straight into coal and producing product where at ZPIT we'd have to dig the box cut. So that's the substitution plan.

So is there a chance to keep them and keep both or do you have issues with infrastructure?

The first one is the CHPP. If we get to 13.5, we max out on the CHPP, and as we've reported in the past, to go beyond that, we'd have to spend capital on our cold processing plants to get that to our next bottleneck, which is the rail loop at 15%. So that's still within scope, but we've pushed that out beyond the 2025 horizon. And we want to take Currah through what we've called the One Currah Plan, where we've been on this improvement initiative to address some of the geometry of the mine in the past, where we had stripping ratios that needed to be addressed. We spoke about the investment we did in the mine last year to get to a more sustainable production profile supported by a stripping ratio profile. That work has been done. A number of people visited the site, and I invite anybody to come out and visit and see what we spent the money on. And now we've got a production profile that's more sustainable out of the existing open cuts that we have. This underground project gives us that structural step change in the volume profile going forward. And then beyond that, obviously, we have the ZPITs and XPITs. They both sit within the life of mine planning, so they part and will be developed in the life of mine for the next 20 years. But we can pull them forward and then augment, and that will be considered a bit post-2025.

So you're not sterilising anything by now going down the underground route?

Absolutely not. We took advantage last year with the high-wall mining to mine underneath the overland conveyor and actually take advantage of coal that was caught up underneath that infrastructure. What the underground ultimately can offer us as well as Curranorth is we'll be mining coal through underground that is under out-of-pit dumps that we wouldn't have seen as economic because of the stripping ratio to move those dumps. That's what it does for investors is this underground project is it pulls all of that coal back into...

And you said you need permitting, obviously. Is there anything peculiar about getting the permitting to switch to this underground option?

Nothing peculiar, but you need to work through, obviously, the regulators and through DES to get approvals to change your mining method. Mining method is for open cut in that part of the mine, seeking to change a mining method. That's the major approvals that we require. And we're well advanced on the required work for the regulator and we've set enough time in our program to ensure we provide them what they need to meet our production profile.

Okay. And maybe switching gears, and maybe this one's for Gerry and Gerhard. I mean, no dividend in the quarter, cash is building. You're obviously clearly looking at everything you can to maybe add some value through acquisition. Maybe... Is it part of, we're now building cash, you've obviously got the BHP assets on the block. Maybe if you just help me understand, is that what you're thinking, building a bit more cash, harder to borrow money for coal assets? And where are we at in the BHP process? Is that still something that's of interest to you or have you had a look and walked away? Thanks.

Yeah, let me get back to your, refer back to the capital management strategy that essentially hasn't changed, you know, Glynne. So first and foremost, we want to maintain a strong balance sheet. I think that's just a given at the moment. You can see with the cash in the bank, definitely a strong balance sheet. The second point is distributions. That's still on the cards. We haven't given up on this. The dividend policy remains 60% to 100% of free cash flow will be distributed. And then you have growth projects, you know. So at the moment, yeah, I mean, look, we're not building a war test, but at the moment we need to balance all of these factors without commenting on the BHP process. You know, I think the comment Jerry made probably covers everything. We keep looking at things and including the obvious ones, the obvious assets that are out there.

Okay, so Gerhard, just finally though, do you think it's harder to get cash then for coal?

No, I think, look, I'm screening the market and I think for met coal, it's a big difference between met and thermal. Thermal, I can see that's becoming more and more difficult, although not impossible. but extremely difficult. For Medcor, we see actually demand out there, particularly on the debt side. On the equity side, it's something else. We don't really look at that too much. But on the debt side, I have bond investors who are telling me, listen, if you ever want to go to the debt market and look for funding, come to us first. Just one bond investor offered me $500 million. No. That all comes at a price, so you have to weigh it up and you need to look at a wider market. But funding, even at these times, for Metco is not, I would say it's not impossible. It's actually not too difficult. It's probably easier. It comes down to price, particularly in the market the way it is right now. when interest rates are going up, driven by inflation. But we see, for our shares, we see big interest. And the interest, to be quite honest, comes to a large extent out of the U.S.

All right. That's great. Thanks very much for the call.

Yep. Thank you. Your next question comes from Alex Ren from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Morning, Jerry, Gerhard, and team. Sorry, Glenn beat me to the question on current autographs, so just one from me on, I suppose, drill deep on capital allocation. Just wondering, what's the plan on the bond buyback, given, I think, the clawback Australia is about to expire, right? And what's the plan on that buyback and refinance? Also, I suppose, is there any clause that if you choose to buy back that part, the remaining amount, do you have to make a matching dividend payment again, as we've seen in the past? That's it.

Yeah, I think we, to be quite honest, we continue on the path we have taken. So far, we have reduced our bond by more than $100 million, and we remain on that path. So when there's an opportunity in November to buy back bonds, that's part of maintaining a strong balance sheet, maintaining a very strong net cash position. So don't expect that to deviate from that path. But at the moment, the bond is still long-term, and it doesn't need to be refinanced. So we are quite comfortable with what we have got at this stage.

Honestly, and just, you know, hypothetically, if you choose to buy back a portion of it, do you still have to make a matching dividend payout?

Yeah. Yeah, depending on under what conditions, but yes, like in the past, in certain circumstances, you have to make a matching offer.

Understood. Sorry, one more, just on M&A. I think, you know, judging from the previous merger news and, you know, the news from this morning, it seems like you've been focusing more on the U.S. market. Just what's the thinking around, you know, the Aussie market? Do you just determine, like, are all the price tags too high to extract value, or what's the thinking around that?

Let me quickly respond to that. I'll just repeat what Jerry said, you know. First of all, First of all, there's just another leak, you know, and probably as with all the others, you know, prematurely people made some assumptions. But fundamentally, of course, we remain interested in the Australian market. But as Jerry said, you know, so all Australian assets have become just a little bit less attractive at the moment. And U.S. assets have become more attractive. that's because of the volatility we see in the Australian market. I mean, I had now U.S. investors telling me, look, you know, what is happening in Australia in the last 12 months. You have the safeguard mechanism introduced. You have massively increased the royalty in Queensland. And then, you know, although we are not in thermal coal, but people see that as an economy, we have introduced, you know, a cap. on thermal coal prices in New South Wales and even a 10% confiscation of thermal coal in New South Wales. So quite a lot of volatility for anyone to invest money in Australia. So it has to be carefully assessed. The attractiveness has reduced in Australia and the attractiveness of U.S. assets has increased. But that doesn't mean we won't look at Australian assets. So in the end, we take a very unemotional look at certain assets and it all comes down to the NPV, you know, all the information we have got, including costs and royalties and everything else.

Yeah, understood very clear. That's it from me, 16.

Yep.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Jerry for closing remarks.

Thank you to everyone participating on the call today. Thank you, Operator. Should you have any follow-up questions, please reach out to our Investor Relations team. Thank you.

Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.