William Peterson: No, I can appreciate that. Just the cadence is particularly an important addition to that. Second question, kind of a follow-up on your lower carbon solution, and I appreciate, LSSs looks more like next decade. But what about, I guess, the sustainable line? You have some talk in the past that EcoLum, EcoSource and EcoDura. How should we think about those programs, the ability for you to drive premiums? And where does I guess, lower carbon aluminum just sit more broadly in your strategies for Alcoa as well as your customers?
William Oplinger: I made some comments at the Future Minerals Forum in Saudi Arabia last week, and I’ll reiterate those here. Our customers are asking for low-carbon solutions. And we and some of our competitors are developing those low carbon solutions. We have the broadest line of low-carbon solutions of anybody out there between EcoLum, EcoDura, EcoSource, we offer low-carbon solutions today that our customers can take advantage of. We’ve seen a fairly sizable growth of EcoLum year-over-year, something like a 60% increase in sales in EcoLum. Are we getting premiums? Small ones, right? And I would like to get a whole lot more premium than what we get. But today, we are getting premiums for EcoLum across the system. And so, our customers want it. We need to be on the forefront, ELYSIS and Australia going into the next decade will provide us significant advantages, but we’re starting to see some of the benefits of selling that broad product line today.
William Peterson: Okay. Thanks for that.
William Oplinger: Thanks, Bill.
Operator: And our next question today comes from Lucas Pipes with B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.
Lucas Pipes: Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. Bill, I wanted to follow-up on San Ciprian. And you mentioned that internal funding sources and lines are close to being exhausted. And I wondered — and the status quo is, is this a matter of weeks, months, quarters, when would those lines be fully exhausted? Thank you very much.
William Oplinger: I hate to give you a definitive time, but I can quantify it a little bit for you. There is roughly $240 million of a combination of restricted cash in the entities and credit lines available. The entities lost on a pretax basis, about $150 million in 2023. So we are essentially sitting down with the stakeholders, trying to determine how can we preserve the cash in the entity to give that facility long enough time to come up with a plan to be viable over time. So there’s not any specific at this point, something as far as I’m willing to go out and say when that cash will run out, but it is a situation where there is limited cash available, and we need to figure out how to get that facility viable over time.
Lucas Pipes: Very helpful. And understand if you were to restart those $240 million of restricted cash and credit lines that would be exhausted very quickly.
William Oplinger: So if we were to restart the 32 pots, it just adds to the drain. Now we have a viability agreement that we plan on fulfilling, but if we do that, then it just accelerates the drain of cash. And that’s a situation where everybody loses.
Lucas Pipes: Okay. Thank you, Bill. Two quick follow-up questions. The first is on 45X. Does that change how you think about the U.S. assets more structurally? Where you say they fit within your smelter portfolio today? And where do you think they fit on the global cost curve after this credit? And then on the environmental ARO, I think kind of cash outflows went from $139 million in 2022 to $202 million last year and then this year, $295 million. Are those inflationary pressures? Is there something lumpy? And where do you think that cash items will go over the coming years? Thank you very much.
William Oplinger: Let me take the U.S. question first. Just it’s important to note how appreciative we are to the U.S. government for providing the clarity around 45X and the fact that those funds essentially support keeping aluminum, which in our view, is a critical mineral for the United States economy, keeping those assets running. Warrick, as we’ve said, we’re investing in Warrick to restart the third line. The 45X clearly helps and we have plans to make Warrick even more profitable over time. Now Warrick in the future needs to figure out what its energy source is going to be. Its energy source is still coal-based. And if we’re going to meet our greenhouse gas targets, we will have to transition that to a sustainable energy, but that’s a problem that we have some time to work on.
Massena on the other hand, is a — it’s renewable energy. It’s got a great energy source. And now with the 45X support, it’s a better facility. So we’re pretty pleased with the level of support that we’ve gotten. We’re trying to get further clarity around 45X to include the raw material sources, and that’s included in that $90 million benefit that you see, but we’ll continue to work on that.
Molly Beerman: On the environmental and remediation cash increase, so it’s about $95 million, and there’s three main components there. We are accelerating mine rehabilitation primarily in Australia, but also a bit in Brazil. We’ve got residue areas coming to end of life, as well as Kwinana water treatment. And then lastly, we are upping our spend on demolition, because we have closed properties that are getting ready for redevelopment.
Lucas Pipes: Thank you, Molly. And kind of looking forward on a more normalized basis, where could that number settle out, given those developments?
Molly Beerman: This is a lumpy one because of the — again, the demolition that we have opportunities. So that’s why we want to get that done. And also on the mine rehab, you can think of that as really a 3, 3.5 year, because we are accelerating the Brazil as part of our commitment for the mine approval.
