Arcadium Lithium plc

Chief Financial Officer. The slide presentation that accompanies our results, along with our earnings release, can be found in the investor relations section of our website. Prepared remarks in today's discussion will be made available after the call. Following our prepared remarks, Paul and Jambretta will be available to address your questions. Given the number of participants on the call today, we will request a limited one question and one follow-up per call. We'll be happy to address any additional questions after the call. Before we begin, let me remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning specific factors, including but not limited to those factors identified in our Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Information presented represents our best judgment based on today's information. Actual results may vary based upon these risks and uncertainties. Today's discussion will include references to various non-GAAP financial metrics, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted earnings per annum share, and adjusted tax rate. Definitions of these terms, as well as a reconciliation to the most directly comparable financial measure, calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP, are provided on our investor relations website. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Paul.

Thank you, Dan. Arcadium Lithium reported strong results in the quarter, despite market conditions remaining challenging. and lifting market price indices ending the quarter at lower levels than they started. Our financial performance continues to show the benefit in these market conditions of our low-cost operating footprint and our commercial approach of securing long-term contracts with strategic partners wherever it makes sense to do so. In terms of the last quarter, this helped us to achieve higher-realized pricing than we would have had we been following a fully market-exposed pricing approach. As a consequence, we delivered an adjusted EBITDA margin of close to 40% in the quarter and for the year to date. Arcadium Lithium realized average pricing of $17,200 per product metric ton by combined hydroxide and carbonate volumes in the second quarter, with Arbuta Lithium and other specialties products achieving a price per LCE that was significantly above this. Our multi-year customer relationships and the wide range of high-quality lithium products we produce means that we can continue to focus on operating our network to maximize the value we achieve per LTE wherever possible. We brought significant additional production capacity online at both Oloroso and Phoenix this year, and we expect this to result in a 25% increase in combined lithium hydroxide and carbonate sales volume in 2024. The timing of the volume additions, as well as the nature of the socket processes, means that we expect 25% volume growth again in 2025 from these already completed expansions, giving us two consecutive years of above-market volume growth. We continue to make significant progress on cost savings as we implement various integration efforts across the two legacy businesses. We expect to realize cost savings in 2024 towards the high end of our $60 to $80 million guidance range. We are also pursuing a program of accelerating the total cost reduction initiatives that we announced at the merger. As a reminder, we previously announced that we expect to achieve total cost synergies of $125 million per annum by 2027, and we're now targeting to deliver these savings faster. It's increasingly clear that at current lithium market prices, our industry cannot invest in capacity expansion at the pace announced today. Arcadium lithium's expansion projects are forecast to be among the lowest cost operations globally when completed, and we remain committed to developing all of them in the coming years. However, the market today is clearly indicating to our industry that accelerating the delivery of additional supply volumes is not what is needed if the market is going to be imbalanced. We have therefore decided to slow down the pace of our own expansion plan by pausing investment in two of our four current expansion projects. Consequently, we will invest in our growth on a timeline that is supported by the market and our customers. This will allow us to reduce our financial commitments during this period of low market prices, reducing our total capital spending over the next 24 months by approximately $500 million on maintaining flexibility to restart these projects at an appropriate time in the future. I will now turn the call over to Gilberto to discuss our second quarter performance.

Thank you, Paul. Starting with slide four, Arcadia Lithium reported second quarter revenue of $255 million, adjusted EBITDA of $99 million, and adjusted earnings of $0.05 per diluted share. Total volumes in the second quarter were up slightly versus the first quarter, with higher carbonate and hydroxide sales partially offset by lower spodumene sales due to reduced production at Mount Catholic. Average realized pricing was higher sequentially for spodumene, but lower across all other products. This decline was driven by a combination of lower market price for lithium chemicals the lagged impact of price indices on a portion of our carbonate and hydroxide volumes, and changes in both product and customer mix. Adjusted EBITDA margins were positively impacted by lower operating costs, while partially offset by some negative FX impacts. As a result, the company achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin of 39%, demonstrating our leading low-cost position in Argentina power of our business in these challenging market conditions. Turning to slide five, we provide further detail on second quarter and year-to-date performance from our key product groups. Lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate together make up the core of our business, comprising nearly three-quarters of our total revenue. On a combined product ton basis, we sold roughly 10,800 metric tons. at an average realized price of $17,200 per metric ton in the second quarter. While pricing was lower quarter over quarter, this is higher than would have been achieved had we pursued a fully spot market-based sales strategy. We continue to benefit from various price scores and firm annual volume commitments in place with a select group of core customers under multi-year agreements. Average realized pricing across butyl lithium and other lithium specialties was also down versus the prior quarter. However, these products continue to deliver very high value for their underlying lithium content, while reducing the overall volatility in our portfolio over time. For spodumene, we sold roughly 23,500 dry metric tons in the quarter from Mount Kaplan, at an average grade of 5.3%. Volumes were slightly lower, consistent with a reduced mining production plan for the year. We achieved average realized pricing of just $1,000 per dry metric ton on a SC6 equivalent basis, which was up over 20% versus the first quarter. The cash operating cost of production at Mount Kaplan remains at approximately $700 for tons due to reduced mining activity. I will now turn the call back to Paul.