Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc. (NYSE:AMR) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Nathan Martin: Okay, perfect. Got it. And maybe just one more. Maybe, Jason – Jason to you, I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks, you guys looking at the current market conditions did make a difficult decision to make some cuts to some labor incentives. Have you seen much churn or labor attrition due to those? And then I think you mentioned it’s roughly $35 million or so in cost savings. How does that translate on a dollar per ton basis maybe to your full year kind of met segment coal costs?

Jason Whitehead: Well, on an annual basis, it’s nominally $2 to answer your question about attrition. It’s kind of early yet. We made those announcements, I think, around the 1st of April, actually mid-March, excuse me. But from what I’ve seen since mid-March, attrition rates are generally in line with recent history. So we haven’t seen definitely not an exodus or anything, but we really haven’t seen even much of an uptick yet. And I suspect that’s just due to the – just the general state of the market. I mean, we’re not the only ones, that’s we all have the same problems. These things go together.

Nathan Martin: Okay, perfect. Thanks. I’ll leave it there, guys. Appreciate the time and info, and best of luck in the second quarter.

Andy Eidson: Thanks, Nate.

Todd Munsey: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Lucas Pipes with B. Riley Security. Please proceed with your question.

Lucas Pipes: Thank you very much for taking my follow-up. It’s not on AI; it’s on the idle mine expenses. Andy, can you comment on what drove the increase? And is this something we should kind of hold steady over the coming years or may kind of revert back lower? Thank you very much.

Andy Eidson: I’ll let Todd give the detailed answer. But it’s, as you have properties that are, we’ll call it in between. They could be in full reclamation status where the cost of the property is going through your ARO balance sheet accounts. Sometimes when you’re in between, you’ve got some timing issues and you’re going to pick up a little bit of extra idle expense while that property is waiting to go into full actual reclamation status. So, Todd that’s, if that’s pretty much in the ballpark aware [ph].

Todd Munsey: Yes, I think that’s the primary driver. Lucas, we did have a little bit of non-recoupable royalties relative to when we did the budget that we layered in. But Andy hit the major point there, so, and in terms of, looking forward, I think, you can look back and see where that range has been. I mean, we certainly don’t anticipate that to increase in the future. So I think the range that we’re in for the near future at least, is probably where we’ll be.

Lucas Pipes: Thank you very much. And Andy, some of your peers have publicly commented on the desire to kind of grow their met coal exposure, especially to the seaborne markets. What’s your take right now on M&A? Are there properties for sale out there? If so, do you have any interest? Not that, I mean, you’re pure play as is, but curious to get your take on M&A and some of those comments. Thank you.

Andy Eidson: Well, I think we’ve kind of hit it a little bit on previous calls. We’re always; look all coal companies are for the most part, acquisitive. We are what we are today because of transactions we’ve done in the past. And so we’re always looking. There are probably some smaller opportunities, as Dan mentioned, we’re seeing some small supply coming offline. Some of these folks just are undercapitalized with no ability to get access to capital markets. There are probably a handful of pretty high quality or at least good quality mines out there that could be attractive, that may be available over the next few months. But as far as larger transactions, again, it’s just really tough to envision a world where, with everyone’s current shareholder bases and capital structures, any significant deals getting done anytime soon.

Everyone really loves the buybacks. There’s been a lot of value created. We agree with that. And so it’s kind of challenging to look at a world where you’re doing the big transformational deals, at least from my vantage point.

Lucas Pipes: Andy, very helpful. I really appreciate it. And again, keep up the good work. Thank you.

Andy Eidson: All right, thanks, Lucas.

Operator: We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to Andy Eidson for closing remarks.

Andy Eidson: Thanks again, everyone, for your interest in Alpha and for being on the call with us today. And we hope you have a great rest of the week.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

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