Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc.

Hello and welcome to the Alpha Metallurgical Resources third quarter 2021 results conference call. My name is Alex and I will be coordinating the call today. If you would like to ask a question at the end of the presentation, you can press star 1 on your telephone keypads. If you would like to withdraw your question, you can press star 2. I will now hand over to your host, Emily O'Quinn, SVP of Corporate Communications, to begin. Over to you, Emily.

Thank you, Alex, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, let me remind you that during our prepared remarks and the Q&A period, our comments regarding anticipated business and financial performance contain forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed. For more information regarding forward-looking statements and some of the factors that can affect them, please refer to the company's third quarter 2021 earnings release and the associated SEC filings. Please also see these documents for information about our use of non-GAAP measures and their reconciliation to GAAP measures. Participating on the call today are Alpha's Chair and Chief Executive Officer, David Stetson, and President and Chief Financial Officer, Andy Edson. Also participating on the call are Jason Whitehead, our Chief Operating Officer, and Dan Horn, Executive Vice President of Sales. With that, I'll turn the call over to David.

Thanks, Emily. Good morning to everyone and thank you for joining us. We're excited to discuss additional details about Apple's third quarter performance with you today. As usual, I'll let the rest of the team provide their detailed thoughts on the results. But there are a couple points I want to highlight with additional context. The first is the 134% increase in sales realizations quarter over quarter on our business tied to Australian indices. Beyond being an outstanding accomplishment by Dan and his entire sales team, this figure is also a reminder of Alpha's commitment to our customers, both in good times and those, like earlier this year, when unique circumstances were much more challenging. That's because we deeply value our customers and make good on our commitments. As much as we've talked about the Australian indices on prior call, I'm especially pleased to report this positive shift. Another important detail to highlight is the fact that we nearly tripled gross revenues quarter over quarter on our MET sales. This is a further testament to the robust market dynamics and our team's diligence in mining and selling our coal for an attractive price. An area where I'm especially proud of our progress is on our debt and legacy reduction. Our total long-term debt and legacy obligations were reduced in the third quarter by over $75 million. If you've listened to our prior earnings calls, you know that I've been steadfast in my assertion that deleveraging the company is critically important to Alpha's longevity, and therefore, debt reduction should be our first priority for excess cash. Thanks in large part to Andy's excellent work in executing these various prepayments and repurchase, we ended the quarter with roughly $500 million in long-term debt. We intend to continue this forward momentum in the coming months because it not only creates value for our shareholders, but it also represents more autonomy for our company, allowing us to be less dependent upon the increasingly expensive and exclusive capital markets. As we decrease our debt load, I believe Alpha becomes a stronger and more self-sufficient and better capable in weather to the cycles we have ahead of this industry. This serves us well both in the near term and as we look several years ahead. Speaking of looking ahead, today we're providing 22 guidance to shed some additional light on our expectations for the next year and our plans to invest in Alpha's future. You'll see in our guidance a range of $160 million to $190 million for 22 capital expenditures. Jason will outline our anticipated CapEx in more detail. But this figure broadly includes, at the midpoint, a roughly $120 million of maintenance spending and $55 million in project-specific investments to strategically expand, improve, or streamline operations at our existing portfolio facilities. Similar to the fourth section at Road Fort 52 that we announced last quarter, these projects were rigorously selected based on their expected quick return on a modest capital investment coupled with anticipated long-term benefit to the company. I'm excited about each of these projects individually, but taken together, I believe these projects will provide additional portfolio depth and flexibility that we can leverage for years to come. As anyone who has watched the coal industry over the last couple of decades or so can attest, this is a cyclical business that can experience dramatic highs and lows. While we are undoubtedly experiencing a period of market strength right now, conditions can change rapidly. Just as when the market is poor, we want to be prepared to act quickly to take advantage of improved pricing, and we similarly want to be clear-headed and ready to adjust to any potential drop in the market from today's very positive conditions. This is the kind of long-term thinking that informs our capital allocation strategies, and it's why we plan to continue making prudent and responsible use of our free cash flow we generate, paying down debt and legacy liabilities, and investing in the future of our operations. With that, I will turn the call over to Jason to discuss our operational results and details of the planned enhancements to our mining portfolio.