Peabody Energy Corporation

Good day and welcome to the Peabody Energy third quarter 2024 conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Carla Akimri, Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thanks for joining Peabody's earnings call for the third quarter of 2024. With me today are President and CEO Jim Grex, CFO Mark Sperbeck, and our Chief Marketing Officer Malcolm Roberts. Within the earnings release, you will find our statement on forward-looking information, as well as a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures. We encourage you to consider the risk factors reference there, along with our public filings with the SEC. I'll now turn the call over to Jim.

Thanks, Carla, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join us today and for your interest in Peabody. In the third quarter, Peabody achieved solid performance across all segments. with notable results in both the seaborne thermal and U.S. thermal segments. We completed $100 million in share repurchases during the quarter, moving our total repurchases for the year to $180 million. This is a reflection of our continued commitment to returning value to our shareholders. Earlier this month, I hope you were able to participate in our Centurion presentation. If not, I encourage you to view it on our website. At Centurion, we continue to make significant progress towards starting longwall production in the first quarter of 2026. Thus far, we have produced first development coal and commissioned two continuous mining units. The prep plant washed its first coal in September, and we have scheduled our first customer shipment for the fourth quarter. As Centurion continues to exceed budgeted development rates, We've had to accelerate the capex spend roughly $30 million as a result of the rapid pace of development. Now, moving on to our operating segments. Overall, our third quarter operational results aligned with our forecast, and our mines continue to perform safely. Seaborne thermal demand continues to grow, and pricing remains stable. We shipped higher than expected export volumes on strong production from Wilpin Yarn. As part of our ongoing commitment to maximizing value from our portfolio, we have reevaluated the timeline to closure for the Lambeau Underground Mine. While initially expecting to run until mid-2026, we have determined that it makes better financial sense to bring forward the mine's closure to mid-2025 due to some challenging geological conditions. In 2025, the Lambeau Underground Mine is expected to produce approximately 800,000 tons which is nearly 400,000 tons less than in 2024. In our seaborne metallurgical segment, we made the opportunistic decision to withhold nearly 90,000 tons of shipments at Shoal Creek during a period of challenging logistics and weak spot prices in the third quarter. The whole lock on the Warrior River, which has been closed for unscheduled repairs, is now operational. Spot prices have improved, and we expect shipments of Shell Creek coal to substantially improve in the fourth quarter. The PRB experienced a slow start today due to low natural gas prices, but volumes picked up in the third quarter. Shipments exceeded expectations due to higher than anticipated customer nominations and improved rail performance. Operationally, our PRB mines continue their effective cost management on material, repairs, and labor spend. Other U.S. thermal shipments and costs were in line with expectations despite low customer nominations. At our 20-mile mine, we'll temporarily see lower yield and productivity as the mine has been experiencing some geological challenges, but we anticipate returning to normal operating conditions in the first quarter of 2025. Overall, we are very proud of our operations performance this quarter. Now I'll turn it over to Malcolm Roberts, our Chief Marketing Officer, will be delivering our outlook on the markets today. Malcolm?