Whitehaven Coal Limited

Whitehaven Coal Q4 FY26 Quarterly Production Report. All participants are currently on mute. Following management commentary, we will open the call for questions from sales side analysts. The queue for questions, you may press star 1 on your touch phone keypad. Thank you for joining us today. I would now like to hand over to Managing Director and CEO, Paul Flynn. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everybody. Thanks very much for joining us now for the June quarter production report. Very pleased to put a final quarter to this financial year that rounded out a year full of second-half disruptions, in fact, whether that be weather or conflicts, obviously, around the world. But despite all that, I think we've done well to button down the year and record some positive numbers to give us aggregate positive outcomes. So as usual I'll just go through the highlights and then we'll get to Q&A and as usual I'm joined by our COO Ian Humphries and our CFO Kevin Ball. So just to round out the Q4 round out to the year our total reportable injury frequency rate was a very positive outcome for the group so safety has delivered 3.3 is the tripper and that's actually a record for the expanded business which is very positive to see. The June quarter ROM production at 10.7 million tonnes was a nice increment over and above the weather affected March and we crested 40 million tonnes, 40.3 in fact for the year as a group which is very positive to see. The June quarter equity sales at 6.3 million tonnes and again the total for the year on an equity basis of 26 million tonnes. Revenue mix at 57% metallurgical, 43% thermal for the year. DefY unit costs, 26 unit costs of $132 came out well and I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about that a little bit later in Q&A and our CapEx again on the lower side of our range that we provided at $350 million. On the cost saving initiatives we have done well coming in between the $60 to $80 million range of annualised savings that we've mentioned before and I'll talk a little bit about that further. Net debt at $1.3 billion AUD is as expected and where we were guiding you earlier, that is after paying the second of the large payments to BHP or to VMA of $500 million US. Just in terms of the highlights quickly on Queensland versus New South Wales, Queensland are on production at 5.7, New South Wales at 5 million tonnes round. Queensland equity sales at 3.2 million tonnes and New South Wales equity sales tonnes there at 3.1. In terms of realised pricing, June quarter for Queensland at $2.47 Aussie, June quarter for New South Wales $197 Aussie. So I just changed it up a bit more like the state of origin, but New South Wales slightly ahead there in a couple of other metrics. Over to the table here, you can see the impact of obviously the second half, as I say, disrupted in some ways, as it has been. So if you look at the totals there, 10.7, as I mentioned already, at a group level, nice recovery over 9.5 in the June quarter, whether effective as it was. You can really see the impact of that when you go top down to the Queensland versus New South Wales comparison. Queensland obviously very weather-affected in the March quarter. Bounceback mass at 5.7 as we mentioned, 41% improvement based on the March quarter. New South Wales obviously bearing less of the brunt of weather in the March quarter, rounded out a good year at just on 5 million tonnes versus 5.4 for the March quarter. So good recoveries overall, but you can see the impacts of one state versus the other with the weather in one and less so in the other. As I say, 5.7 was a good result, 41% up on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Managed sales at the produced level of coal at 4 million tonnes for the June quarter, slightly down on the March quarter as we sold despite the weather impacts impacting in that quarter. The June closing stocks in Queensland at 2.1 million tonnes are reasonably healthy, carrying that into the afterlife 27-year. 20.1 million tonnes for Queensland for FY26. That's a very positive outcome and our managed sales on produced coal at 15.9 million tonnes were at the top of our guidance range for FY26. Blackwater's June quarter at 4 million tonnes was very healthy and a nice recovery for the team based on the wet weather in the March quarter. very positive to see that. Dornier which was less weather affected than Blackwater you can see quarter on quarter has been relatively consistent and landed 1.7 million tonnes of ROM production for the June quarter which is nicely up on March but not proportionate the same step forward that Blackwater had given the weather affected outcomes that it had for the March quarter. Overall very positive result and moving on to New South Wales 5 million tonnes as I mentioned for the managed ROM for New South Wales. As I say, New South Wales slightly got over the top of Queensland at 20.2 million tonnes and our managed sales of produced coal at 16.8 million tonnes are at the top of the FY26 range. The open cuts have done very well during the course of the New South Wales year, and particularly in this quarter, Malls Creek doing very nicely. The open cuts also being a model of stability and producing consistently through the course of the quarter. Malls Creek 3.5 million tonnes is broadly in line with the March quarter, so they've had a nice six months, obviously less affected by weather. Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited of the intrusions into the coal seam and the addition of a fault across perpendicular to the stress directions in this panel has caused us certainly some lower productivity during the course of this quarter, but it's nice to see that improving now, and we can talk about that in the Q&A section of this call. Flipping over to sales, June quarter, it delivered equity sales at 6.3 million tonnes, so 3.2 versus 3.1 for New South Wales. a 7% lower than March with a 6% improvement on our previous corresponding period. Now, the achieved prices for Queensland, an average of $247 Aussie for the June quarter was slightly up on March and averaged for the year there at $229 for FY26. The PLV across that period averaged $238, which is broadly in line, as I say, with where we've been in March. The PLV averaged $214 for the full year. which was up on last year at US average for the year 196. Our operations realised price is $176 US per tonne and that's about 74% across the four products of a realisation relative to the PLV hard coke index. The suite of our primary coking products versus the secondary is 61% for the hard coking semi-hard versus 35% for the PCI semi-soft and 4% attributed to thermal sales during that period. Switching over to New South Wales, as I mentioned earlier, $197 a ton Aussie for the quarter, 13% up on the March quarter, and this compares with an average of $177 Aussie for the full year. The June quarter actually is 136 US per tonne, 14% up on the March quarter at 120. Obviously energy security concerns playing out as a result of the conflict in the Middle East in this space. The GCNU average is $118 for the full year, which was slightly less than last year at $121. Moving on to the dynamics in the market, as I say, the met coal market, whilst we have been recording better prices, don't forget the currency has been moving during this period when we've seen prices, and we have added in the back table, on the back, just the currency that occurred on a quarter-on-quarter basis for you, just to remind you of that fact. We've had a lot of questions about realised pricing being better. That's true, but the currency during the period of the heightened periods of the conflict has also consumed part of that face value, the price benefit that we would have otherwise seen. But we are entering a period now where obviously we've had mine closures as a result of safety concerns in China. You definitely have had... some reduced sales into the Indian market by virtue of the weather and monsoon season being upon us now but you've actually had better mining conditions in Queensland as a result of the period post the weather of the March quarter which is actually seeing Queensland produce better and so there's a little bit more coal in the market at the moment. Flipping to the New South Wales side and obviously the thermal side of the market does benefit from the energy security concerns associated with the conflict in the Middle East and so you've seen some volatility of that rising and falling as a result of the announcements that come from the progression of that contract and in more recent times we've seen that re-elevate again as a result of further announcements but again there is a volatility to the news flow associated with this and unfortunately the thermal price seems to track it which makes it a little bit difficult for projections going forward. The market dynamics themselves remain unchanged, so we think structurally we're in a well position on both the met and thermal side of the market. We certainly see longer term, the met coal demand is certainly going to be short longer term, and the thermal side things would see a similar impact there as well. I don't think anybody needs a lesson in terms of the approvals timeline, so no matter what the prices are, the supply side response on both the met and the thermal side responses to any increase in prices would be muted and of course in Queensland in particular any supply side response needs to be viewed in the context of the royalty regime which is going to keep a damper on any new capital being deployed into that space. Over to production costs at $132 I think we've outperformed there in terms of rounding out the year. A combination of active management out costs and better performance across the year being at the upper end of our sales and ROM targets certainly assisted in that regard. As I say, we've done well on the cost out targets and we will go through the final verification processes for the landing point between the $60 to $80 million that we've achieved for the year and we'll confirm that at the time of the full year results. But we've done a very good job there in terms of managing the volumes. Of course, it's slightly assisted by the lower cost side of the portfolio being New South Wales being proportionately a little bit higher in this year than it was in previous. So that certainly has had a benefit as well. On the balance sheet side of things, I think that predictably 1.3 billion net debt, there's no real excitement there. That was pretty well covered in terms of what the cash flow projections were, as I could see from the various analysts. But obviously the highlight during the course of the quarter was the landing of the refinancing very, very successfully, as we've spoken about already. The $1.5 billion... U.S. facility that we had as a result of acquisition has been refinanced through the bank and bond market, very successfully lowering our costs of finance. And that will be a structural improvement for the business in terms of the way that average cost of capital that now applies to Whitehaven. Payments to PMA as a result of deferred and contingent payments. Of course, we paid the last of the large payments, the $5,000. Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited and we've given you the number that we paid there, $58 million, for the second year of that arrangement. And then we've also given you an estimate of where we're tracking for the first quarter of this last year three of this arrangement, being about $53 million US. On the buyback side of things, during the course of the quarter, we purchased 2.4 million shares at a total cost of $21 million US. and the total buyback expenditure during the course of the half was $32 million, consistent with the announcement that we made in February. So we have included the buyback program that was announced at that time, and over the course of the full year, we purchased 10.1 million shares and bought back a total of $77 million. So the buyback has performed well for us. We'll give further guidance in terms of dividend and buyback-related outcomes when we deliver the full year results. From a project's perspective, there's nothing particular to draw your attention to there, so I'll skip straight across to the conclusion for the year, and that is a good result to recover from both weather impacts and the volatility associated with the Middle East conflict and diesel pricing variability as well. So I think the team's done a really good job, and if I just reflect on the guidance quickly, 40.3 million tonnes split pretty evenly across New South Wales and Queensland very good outcome given the circumstances for the year the sales were 32.7 at a managed level again New South Wales and Queensland done very well in that regard and our costs of course I think that is the standout in terms of where we've been able to land at $132 Aussie per tonne for the year of course that will be subject to final auditing with the full year financial results Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited We're going to conclude and we might hand back to the operator and start the Q&A. Thank you.

Thank you, Southside Analyst. 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 next question is from Dan Rodden with G3s. Please go ahead.

Awesome, thanks. I just wanted to get a bit of commentary. Obviously, your Q4 costs were fairly low, and I think lower than I expected for the quarter. Just giving the commentary on diesel from Q3. I just wanted to see if you could provide a bit of commentary on, I guess, what underlying drivers you were seeing in the quarter, how much diesel cost did contribute to your Q4, and then, I guess, how much was the inventory driven or, I guess, a lower shipping volume

Thanks, Van. I'll make a couple of comments there. Yeah, look, the cost performance, you may recall when we had our March quarter, despite the weather impacts, we had commented at that time that cost-wise, we had done better than the first half in Q3. We rounded out the half here at 135, and we had gone under that to a good measure in Q3, but we were forecasting that with the volatility that was at confronting us, particularly with the escalation in diesel costs. We were seeing quite a significant jump in diesel costs, and at one point there it went double what our budgeted rate of diesel was during the course of Q4. But as you're right to say, not so much strip ratio impacts. I wouldn't say that's really played too much of a part. There's definitely a mix between New South Wales and Queensland, which helps. Q4 volumes have been good in particular. Now, you've seen the open cuts in New South Wales do very well, and Queensland, Blackwater in particular, having had a very subdued weather-affected March, did really nicely in June, and as I say, Dornier was actually quite consistent during the course of the year. But the spikes in diesel prices, so no change in the consumption of diesel. In fact, as you say, generally we consumed a little bit more because the volumes are a little bit higher. but it did come off the peak of it quite quickly in June and so that was a good relief. Now that's not to say it's going to come down to pre-conflict levels but it's definitely improved and as I say the volumetric equation and the weighting between NSW and Queensland worked in our favour not just in the quarter but over the course of the year. You want to add to that, Kevin, on diesel?

I'd probably say when we gave you that guidance in April, that was about the peak of diesel prices. And almost the week after that, the discussion started between Iran and the US, and diesel prices came off quite quickly. So I think our guidance was based on the fact that that $2 a litre for diesel would have carried through the quarter, when in fact we really only saw one month within the period. Yeah. and I agree with Paul, it's a mixed combination between New South Wales and Queensland. The open charts in New South Wales, very good mining conditions and they perform very strongly.

Great, awesome. Thanks for the cover, that was good. And maybe just a bit of colour on Narrabri. Obviously, a bit of a pushback in, I guess, the recovery there in the Longwell panel move and you just pushed out from eight weeks to nine weeks there. Just wondering if you can provide a little, I guess, colour and, you know, I guess what your confidence is that this is, I guess, isolated to 1L204 and, you know, you're not going to, I guess, what's your confidence that you're not going to see these go through to the next 205 panel and, I guess, the rest of the 200 series?

Yeah, thanks, Dad. Yeah, look, Marabrai definitely had a tough time. We did encounter a relatively isolated fault that was, as I mentioned, running perpendicular to the stress directions across the panel, which sort of caused some roof instability. So an abundance of caution and bumpiness from a production perspective, we did stop to reinforce the roof. structure, particularly on the main gate side where obviously where all our infrastructure is. So that did take some time out of the quarter for us, but that was the right thing to do. And we're seeing better performance as a result of having put the time into that. So as disappointing as the quarter's tally was, we feel like we're in a better place already and starting to see better production rates already. Now, You just want to see some consistency of that as that improvement continues.

So, Ian, do you want to add anything? I think just building on what Paul said, I mean, we have to do the extra, I'll call it preventative work in that main gate area, which we're largely through now, and we're starting to see the benefit of the extra work we did on the leaks earlier on in April. So, you know, we're seeking some steadier run rates now to get through the rest of this block.

Yep. I think, look, from my perspective, it's a little frustrating at a level because we've done very well across the year. You can see the cost base. If we had more narrow dry tons, that cost would have come down further because they are our cheapest tons. And we certainly feel whilst the change out is a little bit longer because we want to do a little bit more work in that and what we've previously told everyone is that's step two of the large overhaul that we're giving the wall as a result of making the decision not to go and buy another wall so the wall certainly is performing better in the areas that have had the full overhaul already but as I say we've still got plenty of work to do in this next change out and once that's done and moving into 205, where we know the intrusions are much less intrusive, we're certainly expecting to see much better performance than what we've seen to date.

Perfect, guys. I appreciate the call. I'll hand over and over to you. Thanks.

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

Good morning Paul, Kevin and Ian, how are you doing? Well, a question on just Queensland volumes, looking at where the year ended on Blackwater and Dornier. Blackwater declined a little bit year-on-year. Dornier increased a bit year-on-year, actually to above the 6 million tonne rate on run of mine, which is sort of the medium-term target. Obviously, weather impacted in Blackwater, maybe more so in the June half. I'm just curious around looking at 27, not expecting guidance, of course, now, but is there a bit of stripping catch-up required on Blackwater? And then on Dorney, I see you moving into the southern mining domain in FY27. Is that going to impact production at all just with that transition?

Yeah, good question, Paul. Yeah, we will give you some guidance in another four weeks, so I'll try and answer that without... Coal Limited That's significant. So I think everyone's actually recovered pretty well, and even though, as you say, a little bit less than last year at Blackwater, I actually think that's a really good recovery from the team, so happy with that. Dornier just wasn't the same, wasn't impacted in the same way. So it actually, if you look, draw a straight line through their quarters, they were rising as the year went on, which is positive. So look, we feel pretty good about that. Is there a deficit of stripping as a result? Yeah, look, we're... Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited obviously take advantage of the shorter haul proximity of those focus areas that you mentioned relative to the infrastructure and at some point here you've got to go south and so we're taking the, well ripping the band-aid off there a little earlier and we are gravitating towards the south and so you'll see that in our guidance for the new year so there's That'll be in there in four weeks' time, but that needs to be done. So the balance of all this is just making sure we continue to explore the finality of the central areas and the north, but then start to work our way into the southern areas during the course of not just, obviously, next year, because that's not the product of one year's work. That'll be over a couple of years.

Yeah, understood. And then a question actually on Purchase Coal, which stepped up. I know you do this from time to time depending on blending, but was that purchase coal step up the function of Narrabri underperforming and just having to fill contracts more?

Yes, unfortunately, you know, Paul, that is, there's two things that we purchase coal for, a quality issue that we're trying to deal with or a production shortfall. And, yeah, that was just Narrabri. That end of the market is actually the coals more freely available, so if you've got a shortfall at malls, that's harder to find. but at the Narrabri end of the curve, you can find it, but it was solely Narrabri that we needed to fill some spots in there, particularly as we had some pretty harsh demurrage outcomes in the first half of the year. We didn't want to have any more of that sort of stuff, so we got on top of that and purchased as required.

Okay, and just part B, I mean, when you blend, you typically can make money, but when you're filling contracts, is it washing your face exercise or losing money on that purchase call?

Generally, it's been positive because we've had good contracts at good pricing that we're putting the coal into.

All right. Understood. Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Paul.

The next question comes from Fenton Collins with UBS. Please go ahead.

Thanks, guys. Strong result. Just wondering, so for the half-year result, you reset medium-term Queensland unit costs higher on a combination of temporary and structural cost pressures. Following the strong quarter and FY costs finishing at the low end of guidance, how should we think about the sustainability of the current cost base and has your confidence in the Queensland medium-term cost outlook changed since that reset? Thank you.

I think the key driver in that is volume. So when you've got the volumes coming out the way you expect them to be, then the balance of where we've been has been easier to manage. New South Wales, as I mentioned earlier, did do a little better this year. So we dragged our average cost down. The cost out program across the groups, that's not New South Wales exclusive or Queensland. It's corporate as well. So that has delivered some positive outcomes for us as well. The key for this new year and what we'll talk about in four weeks' time when we deliver our guidance is just what's going on with conflict and what does that mean for diesel because that's been probably one of the most difficult ones to layer into your budget outlook for this new year. We all hope that that concludes as soon as possible but we've been hoping that for some time and having all this activity re-emerge or reignite is terrible on all fronts, but it's making it difficult to plan from a diesel perspective. And so that definitely is driving cost outcomes.

Very good. And you've targeted 60 to 80 mil of annualised cost savings and indicated delivery within that range? How much additional opportunity do you think there remains as, you know, Blackwater and Dornier become more up-to-date lineage grade and support an operating model?

Yeah, look, they've done well. They've done well in this year. So thanks to the team across all of our sites have delivered because it's not just been Queensland that's contributed to that, it's been everybody. there is there will always be some more we're only two years in so I don't think we could realistically say we bettered everything in that we'd like to reorient within the first two years of operations so we will be doing that again in this new year of course cost pressures are what they are inflation is what it is we need to combat that we're seeing inflation right across the business so that's challenging and not just obviously diesel costs that we've spoken about but every every product derivative from you know derived from petroleum I think everyone's got a bit less than in the spread of those products across the economy, not just our industry. But it's in everything, grease, lubricants, polyprop, you name it. It's all across the business. And combating that inflation will be something we have to address in this new year. So, again, it'll be a whole other business approach to that. But essentially, if you get the volumes out that you're predicting, then you'll get the cost outcomes that go with it.

Awesome. Thanks, guys. I'll pass it on.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Chen Jiang with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Paul. Congrats on the better cost for the four-year at the lower end of the guidance. Just on Marlborough, if you can provide or remind us on the challenging mining conditions.

Yeah, thanks, Chen. You all learned a bit. Sorry, go on. Second part to that question. Go on.

Yeah, yeah, okay. Are we going to say similar mining condition with slightly improved mining rate in the first half before the long war movement in the second half?

Yep, yep, I can see why you'd ask that part. I'm going to hand over to Ian to give us a pricey of how you're feeling about the improvement that we're seeing.

Yeah so I mean as Paul touched on we had to do the remedial work or the proactive work in and around these couple of faults that we had that run at sort of 90 degrees to our normal faults that's done and you know we've progressed through there and we're all but finished and you know as we touched on before we're hitting you know good steady rates now so you know and the extra work we've done on the legs that we did in April should set us up pretty well to see the remainder of this block out. And then we have the large nine-week move where all the shields are going to come to the surface. There's an organised program to get all those done and then get them back into 205. And then 205... should have good mining conditions. We've mined all around 205 now, so we have some good visibility. Historically, we've talked about things like the Yabby drilling, so it's well drilled out. you know, depth of cover is still good, seam thickness is good, sort of the interverting between the conglomerate and the coal seam, which bulks up and, you know, assists in the caving process is good, and the conglomerate thickness in 205 is pretty similar to 204, so all good.

All right, so after you move to 205, you will have less intrusion and, I guess, better mining condition after the longwall movement, is my understanding correct?

That's correct, yeah. The intrusions are, you know, decreasing as we moved away from 203 and I guess the broader things that drive your mining conditions are all suitable. Good. Yeah, Tim, just to...

Come to the second part of your question. We are expecting better run rates for the balance of the panel. Now, we're still in the panel that does have intrusions, but our gear is functioning better and we're out of this area. We're almost out of this area. There's a slight small little tail left of it of where this additional fault has presented itself. Once past that, and we're seeing the benefit of the run rates already, we are expecting it to be better than what we've delivered for sure. But As you can hear from the data points that Ian summarised for you, 205 is clearly, we're looking for that to be a bit of a game changer here in terms of Narrabri's more recent performance. The wall will be in good shape having completed the full overhaul of the wall. The ground conditions are not deep particularly, so that's great. So we're still in the shallower end of the side of the mine, and the intrusions will have moderated substantially from what we've experienced in this panel. So the convergence of all those factors means we expect certainly a much better performance in 2005 than 2004.

Great. Thank you so much, Father Carlos. Thanks, Paul, and Ian. I'll pass it on.

The next question comes from Glenn Lawcock with Barrow and Dowie. Please go ahead.

Morning, Paul. Maybe just a quick follow-up first. Just, I assume there's not much you can do there to identify or predict the faults, like this one you've encountered in the last quarter, different orientation. Is there much you can do, or are you trying to do anything to identify that, or is it still, this is going to be a risk, given this is similar to what happened, you know, pretty much all the rest of your life and now, right?

Uh... Yeah, not one like this. This is the first one that I'm aware of. I'll get to all those past you questions for you because it's very relevant. This is the first one I've seen that's actually been perpendicular to the stress directions in this mine. So we've definitely had the intrusions. We've been dealing with that for the last, for 2003 and this 2004, now on the 200 series side of the mine. But this one has been the first one that I've seen that's crossed, basically, the stress directions. And and so that's and there is also an anticline in the scene there which converges at the same place and so that has caused us more disruption this quarter than what we were obviously expecting so Ian mentioned with his summary just a minute ago there just some of the aspects there you recall what we call the Yavi drill you recall that so we actually send that through the panel making sure that we can identify features well in front and that you may recall that that came as a result of encountering a a fault that was basically undetected from the drivings that we've done down either side of that particular panel and which caused a unfortunate amount of downtime. So the Abbey drill's been part of our standard operating procedure now across every panel. So we feel like we've got a good read of what's there but that doesn't mean it's easy when you get there. It just means you've got to prepare for it. But having one, as I say, the first one I've seen which has been Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited Coal Limited

As I said before, we've mined all the way around 205 or within 95. There's a little bit to go in one corner. So we've got good access for getting those drills in and to drill that block out. Okay, that's great.

And then maybe, Paul, just one for Kevin. The net debt increased by $700 million over the quarter, which is essentially the BSP payment. Is there anything... that else went out in the quarter because otherwise it sort of suggests no free cash generation in the quarter pricing similar if not better to the March quarter particularly on the thermal side and you did make a little bit of free cash flow in the first quarter because net debt actually went down over the March quarter despite paying the dividend so just is there something else going on to suggest you couldn't make cash at June quarter prices?

Good question um I'd say wait for the results coming out in about four weeks' time, and out of that we're able to give the half-on-half numbers. I think there were a few things that we sorted out right in that period, which were about we've repopulated a Whitehaven Coal employee share scheme ahead of what's coming out in 2026-27. and we've put a bit of money out the door in Rare Earths of America and a little bit of money into BRE at that point as well. So there's been a few things going out the door that aren't actually what you'd call core business, but we'll get to that when we get to the full year results, Clint.

Okay, good to know. So we made some cash, then. And maybe just a final one, Paul, quickly. Just your thoughts on the recent talk in the market around Costco and wanting to renegotiate the pricing protocols, you know, the spot market or quarterly pricing. I mean, any comments you can make around that? Thanks.

Yeah, look, that was an interesting discussion. comment that this fellow, this visiting fellow had made. Well, I've not heard any feedback from that from our interactions with customers in that regard. So I was a little surprised to have that contribution to, you know, pricing generally. I mean, as you know, we're on a quarterly basis and that allows people to essentially move the market on a quarterly basis. Now, the alternate theory, if you wanted to do something else take for instance the thermal side of the business with the Korean market, that's on an annual fixed price basis. Now that's okay when things go for you, it's not okay when it's going against you. And so I'm not hearing the idea that anybody wants to return to something like that. I think what the underlying substance of the discussion was about as potentially questioning the the depth of the market or the calculation that's used to price PLB. Now, we can all question about that, but the depth of that market isn't going to be improved by having alternative pricing structures and drawing tons out of the market. The best way to actually improve that index is to put more tons under that index. And so from mine, it was sort of a little counterintuitive in that regard. I think we all observe from time to time other subcategories of the indices, and I know we've talked about this with everybody, and I know you and I, and we've had various discussions of this with our chairmen here and so on. You know, the semi-soft prices, there's no depth in that market, so you find tonnes going out of that market doesn't improve any index. More tonnes in the index definitely improves them. So it seems a little counter to the direction of travel in terms of improving the quality of the index combined. But, you know, that's just my comments.

Alright, I appreciate the thoughts. Thanks all.

Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Raoul Anand with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

I'm going to try a second time here. Paul, thanks for the call.

No problem.

So look, a few of the questions that I was going to ask around realised prices, Blackwater, Dornier, have been addressed, but... If I just go back to the pricing side of things, I'd be keen to understand just during the quarter as well in terms of your performance. Perhaps closer to my numbers, but still a good beat to consensus on both thermal and met coal pricing. And I guess the thermal side benefits from the fact that your Narrabri volumes were lower. but are there any other impacts there to call out as to why that pricing did end up being stronger? I mean, was there any timing impacts there that came more volume towards the end or anything else to call out for that?

No, I think you've already highlighted the one variable in all of that. It's just the mix of Narrabri was less and therefore the realizations are higher. But In a way, that probably was less influential. That's more of a cost-based consideration rather than a pricing one because Narrabri, to the extent that Narrabri is contracted, and it's not a 100% contract, but to the extent it is, and going back to the question we received earlier all about purchasing coal, where we purchase the coal and put it into a contract, that contract already is negotiated with an existing realisation that sits with it. So it's less influential. in that sense it's really just that's really just how it plays out we should have an improving realization over time that there's on the thermal side in particular and we've got more we've got more vickery in there you've got a little tarawanga so that's that's quality products which do attract healthy premiums relative to the narrow ride contribution got it okay so it's more volume driven that that makes sense um

And look, the second one, just around the question just now about the POSCO comment made, and you just opined on that, but just for our knowledge, when are some of the contracts coming up for, you know, rolling over or renegotiation? When does that typically happen? What shape does it take as well in terms of, you know, perhaps your volumes are locked in or, like, how should we think about it, if I had to put it, very simplistically close to what the iron ore miners have going on with the CMRG side of things at the moment.

Yeah, we don't have anything, thankfully, CMRG related in that regard. And there aren't that many met coal customers in Korea either to form a CMRAG type thing. I mean, the thermal side obviously is a lot more diverse But again, as you know, their practice has been tendering everything, and there's a one-year fixed contract that goes with that. So, yeah, I think it really, as I said before, I think it's a question about the concerns that we all have from time to time about the index and what particular sales are driving the direction one way or the other. And I'd say the best answer is put more volume under that. under that index, and it'll be more reflective of what's going on in the market.

But in terms of the contract timings, Paul, any coming up for renegotiations or anything else on the... Yeah, sorry, I didn't...

I didn't deal with that. My apologies. Look, there's no contracting season as such. That's happening, depending on when you struck it, it's generally, it's happening a year from then. But it's not constrained in terms of... you know, a financial year, be that Korean financial year, Japanese financial year type arrangement. It's just when they roll off, you renew. So there's not a season, put it that way, of contracting.

Yes, no, I was trying to allude to that in terms of when do these roll off. I mean, if you're comfortable discussing just rough timelines on how these are progressing and when do they roll off.

Just during the course of the year. That's what I'm saying. There's not a fixed contracting season.

Got it. Okay. That's clear. That's my two. I'll pass it on. Thanks. Thanks, Rob.

Thank you. That concludes our question and answer session. I'll now hand back to Mr Flynn for closing remarks.

Thanks all for dialing in. Appreciate all the attention. The questions has gone into the business. Very good to be able to round out the year in good form towards the top of our guidance or the better end of all our guidance and lower end on our costs. That's nice. to be able to deliver that for you. If there's any further questions that we haven't been able to touch with, you know where to find us, and I'm sure we'll see you over the next few weeks. And before each time, of course, we'll have full-year results, including guidance for FY27.

Thanks all once again. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.