Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Alpha Metallurgical Resources Second Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Emily O'Quinn, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. Emily, you may begin.

Thank you, Paul, 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 second quarter 2023 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 GAAP measures. Participating on the call today are Alpha's Chief Executive Officer, Andy Edson, and our President and Chief Operating Officer, Jason Whitehead. Also participating on the call are Todd Muncy, our Chief Financial Officer, and Dan Horn, our Chief Commercial Officer. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Andy.

Thanks, Emily, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased with our team's performance in the second quarter, especially in light of some challenging circumstances that we worked hard to safely and quickly overcome. Our June operational update press release detailed the circumstances around the events at our Road Fork 52 mine in West Virginia and the Dominion Terminal Associates terminal in Virginia, so I won't recount them here. But I will say, due to the diligence of our team, each of these challenges was resolved in a satisfactory and quick manner. As our press release this morning stated, the delayed tons from ETA shipped out in July as expected, and the Road Fork 52 production levels are back to normal. and we expect to be able to make up the delayed tongues impacted by this issue within the third quarter. Despite these hiccups, we produced quite well during the second quarter. In terms of realizations, the metallurgical indexes have experienced volatility in recent months, but have generally followed a downward trend coming off the highs of last year. I believe alpha is well positioned to deal with this volatility in the coal market and further softness in the indexes should that occur. On the volume side, We are fully committed at the midpoint of guidance across the portfolio for this year. As we continue focusing on safely and efficiently producing this coal, for our customers, we are also looking toward next year and the best way to position ourselves for whatever may come in 2024. The current weakness in steel demand, coupled with monetary tightening in the United States and Europe, and the residual inflationary pressure on supplies and materials are all considerations in what we expect the back half of the year to look like. As these and several other geopolitical and economic factors continue influencing the coal markets over the coming months, we plan to keep our focus on producing safely, optimizing our output based on customer market needs, and controlling our costs. These are the priorities that will serve us well in all pricing environments. Turning to our capital return program, we've not only seen great success from the buyback program with more than $850 million returned to stockholders, in the form of buyback since the program's inception roughly 17 months ago. But we've also heard from our investor base with pretty certain unanimity that share repurchases are the preferred method through which they wish to have capital return. With that goal in mind, we've decided to consolidate our capital return efforts into an exclusive focus on our share buyback program. The dividend program will cease following the board's next dividend declaration and payout, both of which are expected to occur in the fourth quarter. We had previously targeted a $28 million annual dividend amount with quarterly unit dividend growth coming from the impact of the share repurchases, but this budgeted amount will now be available for redirection to the buyback program. Management will continue to execute on the Board's current $1.2 billion share repurchase authorization, provided market conditions and cash flow levels allow. I believe utilizing all available funds for the share buyback program is the most efficient option that represents the best return to our shareholders, so that's what we're going to do. With that, I'll turn it over to Todd for discussion of our second quarter financial results.