Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc.

Good morning and welcome everyone to the Alpha Metallurgical Resources first quarter 2022 results conference call. My name is Tamia and I will be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. It is now my pleasure to pass the conference over to Emily O'Quinn. Please proceed.

Thank you Tamia and good morning everyone. Before we get started, let me remind you that during our prepared remarks, 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 first quarter 2022 earnings release and the associated SEC filing. Please also see those documents for information about our use of non-GAAP measures and their reconciliation to gap 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, our Chief Commercial Officer. With that, I'll turn the call over to David.

Thanks, Emily. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As we announced in our press release this morning, we are pleased to report back-to-back record performance with adjusted EBITDA of $504 million in the first quarter. While market forces are undeniably central factors in our ability to post these kind of numbers, it also wouldn't be possible without the continued safe production of our team and the groundwork, planning, and execution of the last few years that have optimized our portfolio, and set us on a positive trajectory. This success has also transformed our balance sheet. Since June the 30th, 2021, in less than one year's time, Alpha has paid over $450 million on our term loan. This leaves us just under $100 million in term loan borrowings, and we intend to eliminate the remaining term loan balance in the second quarter. This progress is an addition through the early discharge and some legacy liabilities that we discussed in recent quarters. I have consistently communicated my belief in the importance of deleveraging. I've been transparent about our intention to take the debt down to zero. Some may find this approach unorthodox, and I understand why it likely would not be appropriate for many other businesses. However, I firmly believe it's the best for Alpha at this time due to the cyclical nature of our business and the increasingly scarce and expensive financing opportunities available to companies like ours. Having no debt allows for greater self-sufficiency, resilience, and flexibility to weather the inevitable challenges of market troughs. I'm excited for the day when we can announce that our debt has been paid off. But until then, I'm very pleased to share the significant progress we've made toward that end. Another top priority is to return value to our shareholders. In March, we announced a $150 million share repurchase program that would allow us to buy back our common stock in the open market. We have already actively engaged with approximately 40 million in purchases so far. As we forecast how the balance of the year may unfold, we believe there's great opportunity to continue this positive momentum on a much larger scale. Therefore, our board has increased the authorization to share buyback program, giving us the ability to purchase up to $600 million of our common stock. With the elimination of our debt within reach and with expected cash generation levels like we see in the first quarter, we are in a position to simultaneously achieve multiple goals with our free cash flow. Our board of directors has also instituted a dividend at an annualized rate of $1.50 per share, do you pay it on a quarterly basis with the first quarterly dividend payment of 37.5 cents per share being paid out on July the 1st to alpha stockholders of record as of June the 15th. Together, the share repurchase program and the dividend program establish a multi-faceted strategy for returning capital to alpha shareholders. It's great to have such positive news to share about Alpha's near-term accomplishments. However, as you've heard me consistently discuss on prior calls, I'm interested in the long-term strength and resilience of our company. Not only for the many customers across the world who depend on our products to build their societies, but also for the thousands of employees who make up our dedicated team, and of course, our investors. In March, I mentioned that the company's senior leadership was wrapping up a strategic planning exercise to chart Alpha's next 15 years. While we obviously have reserves extending well beyond this time horizon, a decade and a half is a period lengthy enough to require long range planning into development, permitting, and capital needs, yet still tangibly close enough to yield meaningful projections and actual information we can use in our current operational decision making. Given the size and scope of our portfolio, it was not a simple exercise, and it demanded a lot of the team, both in terms of the volume of data that was compiled and analyzed, but also in the invaluable discussions to help clarify the path ahead and what we want Alpha to look like over the next decade and a half. I want to thank Andy, Jason, Dan, and Roger and their entire teams for their work in producing a high-caliber final product that far exceeded my expectations. We recently presented a long-term plan to our board of directors, and I've asked Andy to provide some of the high-level takeaways on today's call before he covers the financial for the first quarter. With that, I'd like to hand the call over to Andy.