Yancoal Australia Ltd

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Yankou third quarter production report. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear automatic message advising your hand is raised. You can also submit your questions via the webcast at any time during the presentation. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded I'll now hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. Brandon Fitzpatrick. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Desmond, and thank you to everyone joining us for Yan Cole's briefing on the third quarter production report. We have several members of Yan Cole's executive leadership team on the call to review the quarter and participate in the question and answer session. The commentary provided today is based on the quarterly production report released on the Australian Securities Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong yesterday the 20th of October. All financial references in this webcast are in Australian dollars unless otherwise designated. I'll now hand over to our Chief Executive Officer, Sheriff Burra, to provide the quarterly highlights.

Thank you Brendan and welcome everyone. The third quarter was an important period for Yang Coal marked by the completion of the Kestrel acquisition, continued operational discipline across our portfolio and stronger realised pricing supporting a significant uplift in our cash position. On the 1st of October, we completed the acquisition of an 80% interest in the Kestrel Coal Mine. Kestrel is a high quality, long life metallurgical coal asset that strengthens our portfolio and increases our exposure to premium steelmaking coal markets. It's a meaningful step forward in our growth strategy and we look forward to working with our joint venture partner Mitsui and the Kestrel workforce as integration activities progress. Earnings from Kestrel will commence this quarter. Despite lower production due to planned longwall activities, our cash balance increased by $340 million during the quarter. This reflects stronger realised pricing, disciplined cost management and continued operational momentum across the business. Kevin will expand on the financial position and guidance later in the call. Turning to production, managed operations delivered 16.6 million tonnes of run-of-mine coal and 12.4 million tonnes of saleable coal during the quarter. Production was lower than the second quarter due to the planned long-wall relocation at Mullarban and challenging geological conditions at Ashton. Importantly, Mullarban's Longwall returned to regular production in September, providing a foundation for improved output in the December quarter. Across the Open Cup portfolio, Mount Thorley-Walkworth, Middlemount and Hunter Valley operations all delivered strong performances, and year-to-date we're tracking ahead of last year's record performance. Looking ahead, stronger production in the December quarter, continued support from favourable coal market conditions and the commencement of earnings from Kestrel are all constructive for our full year performance. Normally at this stage, I'd hand over to David Bennett, our Executive General Manager Operations, to provide further detail on operational performance and safety. However, David's attending to other matters today, so I'll cover these topics. Safety remains a core focus across all sites. Our total recordable injury frequency rate ended the quarter at 7.14 compared with 7 at the end of June. While still below the industry-weighted average, the recent trend reinforces the need for continued targeted intervention activities to strengthen safety performance. Operational performance during the third quarter was broadly in line with our expectations. The planned longwall relocation at Mullarban was the primary driver of lower production relative to the second quarter. Across managed operations, we produced 16.6 million tonnes of run-of-mine coal and 12.4 million tonnes of saleable coal. Mullarban completed the longwall relocation with open-cut operations and the coal handling and preparation plant performing strongly throughout the quarter. The longwall recommenced production in September positioned the site for increased output in the December quarter. Mount Thorley-Walkworth delivered higher run-of-mine production supported by strong mining fleet performance and dragline productivity. Sailable coal production remained consistent with the prior quarter. Hunter Valley operations maintained strong momentum with run-of-mine production exceeding our forecast and coal handling and preparation plant performance supporting consistent sailable coal output. Middlemount delivered improved production supported by strong mining performance and favourable yields Yarrabee delivered steady production with continued focus on coal exposure and mining optimisation Ashton's production was significantly lower due to challenging geological conditions in the Longall roof Operational focus remains on safely managing strata conditions and supporting future production continuity With Mullarburn's Longwall now operating and strong open cut performance across the portfolio, production in the December quarter is likely to be stronger than the September quarter. Kestrel produced 6.3 million tonnes of ROM coal and 4.8 million tonnes of saleable coal on a 100% basis in the nine months to the end of September. We receive our 80% interest from the 1st of October onwards. The operation continues to perform well, resulting in a long-haul relocation being brought forward, which will affect coal production in the back end of the fourth quarter. I'll now hand over to Mark Salem, our Executive General Manager, Marketing and Logistics, to provide commentary on the coal markets.