Core Natural Resources, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to Console Energy's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero on your telephone keypad. 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 2. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nathan Tucker, Director of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Welcome to Consol Energy's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Any forward-looking statements or comments we make about future events are subject to risk. certain of which we have outlined in our press release and in our SEC filings, and are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. We do not undertake any obligations of updating any forward-looking statements for future events or otherwise. We will also be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures which are defined and reconciled to comparable GAAP financial measures in our press release and furnished to the SEC on Form 8K, which is also posted on our website. Additionally, we filed our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter-ended September 30, 2023, with the SEC this morning. You can find additional information regarding the company on our website, www.consolidary.com, which also includes a supplemental slide deck that was posted this morning. On the call with me today are Jimmy Brock, our Chief Executive Officer, Mitesh Thakkar, our President and Chief Financial Officer, and Bob Braithwaite, our Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales. In his prepared remarks, Jimmy will provide a recap of our third quarter 2023 achievements and a detailed discussion of our operation. Patesh will then provide an update on our marketing and financial progress in our updated 2023 outlook. In his closing comments, Jimmy will lay out our key priorities as we prepare to head into 2024. There will be a Q&A session followed by our prepared remarks in which Bob will also participate. With that, let me turn it over to Jim.

Thank you, Nate. Good morning, everyone. I want to begin by acknowledging a major milestone that we reached during the third quarter. After retiring our term loan B in Q2 23, we made a final discretionary payment of $24 million to fully retire our second lien notes during the third quarter. In doing so, we have officially retired all of the $800 million of debt that was raised in conjunction with financing our spin-out transaction in late 2017. Through the first nine months of the year, we've generated $522 million of free cash flow, which has already eclipsed the full year 2022 total. With that free cash flow, plus deploying some cash from our balance sheet, we've returned significant value to our shareholders year to date through October. We've spent $292 million toward buying back shares of our common stock, $75 million toward dividends, and $183 million toward debt repayments. From an operations and marketing standpoint, we continued our pivot into the export market during the quarter, and as such, 71% of our total reoccurring revenues and other income has come from export sales year-to-date. As of early October, our Kansai Marine terminal has surpassed its previous annual throughput tonnage record of 14.3 million tons, and is on pace for 19 million tons this year. Let's now discuss our operational performance in more detail. On the safety front, our Bailey Preparation Plant, Ipman Preparation Plant, and Consol Marine Terminal each had zero employee recordable incidents during the third quarter of 2023. Our coal operations finished the quarter with a total recordable incident rate well below the national average for underground coal mines. Coal production at the Pennsylvania Mining Complex came in at 6.1 million tons in Q3 of 23, an improvement compared to 5.3 million tons in Q3 of 22. Additionally, we finished the third quarter of 2023 with 447,000 tons of inventory, simply due to the timing of export vessel shipments. On the cost front, Our PMC average cash cost of coal sold per ton for Q3 23 was $38.36, compared to $39.77 in Q3 of 22. The improvement was mostly due to the fixed cost leverage that came from our fifth loan law, which was not operating in the prior year quarter. As we've said before, one of the major benefits of having the fifth law is that it allows us to better smooth out weaker volume quarters due to planned shutdowns or multiple longwall moves. For Q3 23, although expected, cash costs were higher than our annual public guidance range, as the third quarter is our seasonally weakest quarter because of our planned summer maintenance shutdown. We also had a planned longwall move in the quarter. However, for the full year, we still expect to be within our average cash cost of coal sold per ton guidance range. Moving on to Ipman. During the third quarter of 2023, the complex showed improved production performance, producing 91,000 tons compared to 70,000 tons in Q2 of 23. All three of the supersections mined additional height for mains development, which requires cutting some rock. This caused our mining rates to slow during the quarter versus expectations, but this is necessary to support the long-term needs of the coal mine. Furthermore, although all three continuous minor supersections are installed underground, we are currently operating two of the three as true supersections as we continue to deal with a challenging labor market in the region. Once we have completed our mains development, we will operate the three super sections in targeted blocks of our coal reserves. This is expected to lead to more efficient mining heights and improve production rates and cost. Finally, in the third quarter, the complex sold 123,000 tons of Itman and third-party coal. And year-to-date, the complex has sold 357,000 tons of Itman and third-party coal in aggregate. Moving to the Kansai Marine Terminal. We achieved a throughput volume of 4.3 million tons shipped during Q3-23, compared to 2.7 million tons in the prior year quarter. The Consol Marine Terminal continues to prove its worth in executing our longer-term strategy of moving more PAMC tons into growing export markets. Terminal revenues for the quarter came in at $22.7 million, and CMT operating cash costs were $7.5 million. Accordingly, CMT adjusted EBITDA finished at $14.9 million compared to $8.3 million in the prior year period. With that, let me turn the call over to Mattes to provide the marketing and financial updates.