Earnings Call Transcript - AMR Q1 2024

Operator, Operator

Greetings. Welcome to the Alpha Metallurgical Resources First Quarter 2024 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. You may now begin.

Emily O'Quinn, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications

Thank you, Rob, 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 first quarter 2024 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 Eidson; and our President and Chief Operating Officer, Jason Whitehead. Also participating on the call are Todd Munsey, our Chief Financial Officer; and Dan Horn, our Chief Commercial Officer. With that, I will turn the call over to Andy.

Andy Eidson, CEO

Thanks, Emily, and good morning everyone. Today, we announced financial results for the first quarter of 2024 with adjusted EBITDA of $190 million. This was another solid quarter of work from the Alpha team, despite some challenging circumstances and the significant softening of met coal markets starting in March. Since the quarter closed, we witnessed further deterioration in market fundamentals, which sets up a challenging backdrop for the second quarter. Although our Q2 performance will obviously reflect the market environment in which we're operating, I remain confident in Alpha's strength and ability to weather volatility. For more than a few years now, we've used the word nimble to describe how we prefer to operate, constantly evaluating lots of data to find areas that can be optimized to plug cost leaks. We believe that this approach is valuable in all market conditions, but especially in down cycles when quickly adapting to economic reality becomes a true necessity. In response to the sharp market decline that has occurred so far in 2024, we've made small adjustments to safely reduce costs where possible by optimizing production and logistics. Given our size and scale, the magnitude of these changes doesn't impact our previously announced volume expectations for the year, but these adjustments are allowing us to respond appropriately to deterioration in the market. We will continue monitoring external market drivers while also maintaining a close eye on controllable costs within our business and will take further action as necessary. As I visit our operations and talk with employees, I'm consistently impressed by the Alpha drive to overcome challenges and make the most of difficult circumstances. Our first quarter performance is yet another example of this determination. Subjectively, I see it in mine visits, but there are also objective measures that don't get a lot of attention. One in particular is a productivity metric called tons per man hour. As is always the case, safe production is our highest priority at Alpha and we continually promote a safety mindset first and foremost. And somewhat counterintuitively, we usually see that safety, efficiency, and productivity go hand in hand. MSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, aggregates droves of data each quarter, including production by operator and tons per man hour, which is exactly as it sounds. As a company, Alpha consistently performs well and has led the pack in this measurement among room-and-pillar or continuous miner operators for the last eight quarters. Despite the well-known differences between continuous miners and longwall operations, Alpha's operations often perform well against certain longwall operations too. I'm proud to say that in Q1, Alpha led all of our notable peers, including longwall operators, with the tons per hour metric roughly 14% more productive than the next operator in line. That kind of safe, consistent performance is a testament to the skill and effectiveness of our teams. We encourage this behavior among our operations and are consistently looking for ways to maintain this industry-leading position. During our fourth quarter earnings call, we discussed our intention to slow or pause the buyback program in an effort to build cash balances back up to our targeted levels. Especially given the market dynamics currently at play, we continue to believe this is the right strategy. Our capital return philosophy remains the same and will continue to be driven by our cash flow. As minimum cash levels and market conditions allow, we will utilize available free cash flow for the buyback program. Lastly, we hosted our annual meeting of stockholders on May 2. This meeting included a vote to elect members of our board of directors. All seven of our board members were elected by the shareholders to serve a term of one year. The full results of the annual meeting have been provided through our SEC filings. I will now turn it over to Todd for additional details regarding our first quarter financial results.

Todd Munsey, CFO

Thanks, Andy. First quarter adjusted EBITDA was $190 million, down from $266 million in fourth quarter 2023. We sold 4.4 million tons in the quarter. Quarter-over-quarter realizations decreased for the Met segment with an average first quarter realization of $166.68, compared to $183.76 for the fourth quarter. Export met tons, priced against Atlantic indices and other pricing mechanisms in the first quarter, realized $172.24 per ton, while export coal priced on Australian indices realized $193.70. These are compared to realizations of $175.32 per ton and $213.41, respectively, in the fourth quarter. Realization for our metallurgical sales in the first quarter was a total weighted average of $176.20 per ton, down from $193.54 per ton in the prior quarter. Realizations in the incidental thermal portion of the Met segment decreased to $76.53 per ton in Q1 as compared to $89.76 per ton in Q4. Cost of coal sales for our Met segment decreased to $115.65 per ton in the first quarter, down from $119 per ton in Q4. SG&A, excluding non-cash stock compensation and non-recurring items, increased to $19.9 million in the first quarter as compared to $16.9 million in the fourth quarter. Q1 CapEx was $63.6 million, up from $61.5 million in the fourth quarter. Moving to the balance sheet and cash flows as of March 31, 2024, we had $269.4 million in unrestricted cash, roughly flat against the $268.2 million at the end of the fourth quarter. We had $93.7 million in unused availability under our ABL at the end of the quarter. Alpha had total liquidity of $288.1 million as of the end of March, which is net of a $75 million minimum liquidity ABL covenant. Cash provided by operating activities decreased slightly quarter-over-quarter to $196.1 million in Q1, as compared to $199.4 million in Q4. As of March 31, our ABL facility had no borrowings and $61.3 million of letters of credit outstanding, up from $60.9 million in the prior quarter. Turning now to our committed position for 2024, 49% of our metallurgical tonnage in the Met segment is committed and priced at the midpoint of guidance at an average price of $168.26. Another 49% of our Met tonnage for the year is committed but not yet priced. The thermal by-product portion of the Met segment is fully committed and priced at the midpoint of guidance at an average price of $76.10. With first quarter actuals and increased visibility into the balance of the year, we announced two adjustments to our 2024 guidance. We now expect idle operations expense for the year to be between $25 million and $33 million, up from the previous range of $18 million to $28 million. For the 2024 tax rate, we decreased guidance to a range of 10% to 15%, down from the previous expectation of 12% to 17%. During the first quarter, we repurchased approximately 305,000 shares at a cost of approximately $116 million, including shares repurchased from employees in connection with tax withholdings on annual stock vestings. As of April 30, 2024, the number of common stock shares outstanding was approximately 13 million. The remaining stock buyback program authorization permits approximately $400 million in additional repurchases, contingent upon cash flow levels and market conditions. We continuously monitor market conditions and due to the current weakness in the pricing environment relative to Q1, our focus in Q2 will shift toward maintaining our liquidity position. While we do not guide towards share repurchase activity, we do expect market softness to limit our repurchase activity in Q2. I will now turn the call over to Jason.

Jason Whitehead, President and COO

Thanks Todd, and good morning, everyone. I mentioned in our last call that our teams are achieving new records in safety and environmental stewardship. Since then, Alpha operations and team members have been recognized publicly with several awards for their efforts. Our mine rescue teams in Southern West Virginia placed first and second in the Southeast Regional Mine Rescue contest in March. Along with these top rankings, both teams received several additional first-aid technician team and bench awards, including our Southern West Virginia team winning first place in the Mine Rescue and First Aid competition, while our Paramount team came in second. Each year, the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety & Training presents Mountaineer Guardian awards to operations that maintain high safety standards. For 2023, six of our locations were honored as Mountaineer Guardian recipients: Cedar Grove Number 3 Mine, Bandmill Prep Plant, Kingston Prep Plant, Kingston South Surface Mine, Rolling Thunder Mine, and Workman Creek Surface Mine. Additionally, last week at the Holmes Mine Safety Awards Banquet, several of our operations were celebrated. Among the surface mines, Black Castle Surface Mine, Kingston North Surface Mine, Kingston South Surface Mine, and Workman Creek Surface Mine received awards; in the underground mines category, recognitions went to the Marfork Belt Transfer System, Cedar Grove Number 2 Mine, Slabcamp Mine, Glen Allen Mine, Kingston Number 2 Mine, Horse Creek Eagle Mine, and Road Fork 52 Mine. In the plants and load outs category, Pax Loadout, Marmet Dock, Feats Loadout, Mammoth Plant, River Loadout, Power Mountain Processing Plant, Bandmill Prep Plant, and Marfork Processing Plant were all honored. I am also proud to announce individual achievements. One individual received the Sharon Cook award for his outstanding safety service and commitment to training miners. He exemplifies dedication to safe production. Our Senior Vice President of Safety, the author of Safe Production, received the Safety Leader of the Year Award, marking the second consecutive year an Alpha leader has been honored with this title. I extend my congratulations to all the award winners. The numerous recognitions accurately reflect the importance of safety within our company. On the environmental side, Alpha operations earned three environmental awards in West Virginia for 2023. The West Virginia DEP recognized Workman Creek for exemplary reclamation of surface mine operations and Kingston for outstanding construction techniques on their Kingston North Surface Mine permit. Elk Run was also awarded for its reclamation work at the Queen and Black Queen Mines. In Virginia, our operations received five awards for environmental performance. Paramont’s Deep Mine 26 was recognized by the Met Coal Producers Association for Best AML Dangerous Highwall Elimination and received the National Reclamation Award from the Interstate Mining Compact Commission. Paramont was also awarded for best completed deep mine at Deep Mine 25 and for best active deep mine at Deep Mine 41. Lastly, the MCPA awarded Dickerson Russell for Best Active fill at our McClure preparation plant. I congratulate our environmental and operations teams for their commitment to excellence beyond compliance. Our first-quarter performance was solid, especially considering the challenges we faced, which I will elaborate on shortly. As Andy mentioned earlier, I take great pride in our teams excelling in safety and productivity measures like tons per man hour. We can achieve safety and productivity simultaneously, which is our goal every day. A lot has changed since spring of 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The competitive labor market, already challenging, has made it tougher to recruit talent in a hands-on environment. Additionally, inflation has caused business costs, including supplies and labor, to soar to unprecedented levels, with some critical components becoming difficult to obtain. We have previously discussed how Alpha has mitigated many of these challenges by expanding our rebuild facilities and stocking our warehouses with essential parts and supplies to weather the storm, alongside acquisitions like Maxim Manufacturing and Maxim Transportation. Todd mentioned the quarter-over-quarter decrease in Australian index export realizations of about $20 a ton, reflecting the recent downward trend in coking coal prices. This trend highlights a softening of supply competition in our industry, easing in recent quarters. We are now facing different and more difficult circumstances than those we effectively navigated post-COVID. The uncertainty surrounding market stability complicates our decision-making. Year-to-date in 2024, significant behind-the-scenes work has been underway to guide Alpha through these challenges. With over 1,200 active suppliers, it takes time to communicate market conditions and Alpha’s future needs and expectations, but we are progressing well. While we value our established partnerships with suppliers, we are open to shifting to lower-cost alternatives as they arise. Alpha is also refocusing on our rebuild and manufacturing facilities. As I mentioned, the availability of certain supplies has improved, allowing us to avoid situations where we must manufacture everything out of necessity, with our initiatives focused on maximizing margins. Every component we build is less expensive than sourcing it from third parties, but we are evaluating each project to ensure it delivers the highest return for Alpha. We are fortunate to have the expertise in-house to efficiently transition from machining items like tracks and chains for continuous miners to fabricating chute work for preparation plants. Lastly, while we communicate current market trends to our employees, Alpha has made the difficult decision to implement certain incentive cuts across the organization, totaling approximately $35 million annually. With our experienced workforce, I believe they can appreciate the cyclical nature of markets. Although such measures are not favorable, many understand their necessity for sustainability. I will now turn the call over to Dan for an update on the markets.

Dan Horn, Chief Commercial Officer

Thanks, Jason, and good morning, everyone. In recent months, metallurgical coal markets have softened due to weakened global demand for steel. Economic pressures, geopolitical uncertainty, and global recessionary fears have contributed to the demand dynamics and volatility in metallurgical coal markets. Economic conditions remain uneven across the world, with generally stronger circumstances in the United States than in Europe and certain parts of Asia, which continue to experience significant geopolitical strife. Metallurgical coal prices fell significantly during the first quarter of 2024. All four indices that Alpha closely monitors saw a drop of 16% or more within the quarter, with the Australian PLV index representing the largest reduction of 25%. The Australian Premium Low-Vol index dropped from $324.75 per metric ton on January 2, 2024 to $244.50 per metric ton at the end of the first quarter. The U.S. East Coast Low-Vol index decreased from $268 per metric ton at the beginning of January to $225 per metric ton at the end of March. The U.S. East Coast High-Vol A index moved from $281 per metric ton at the start of the year to $225 per metric ton at quarter close, and U.S. East Coast High-Vol B decreased from $252 per metric ton to $200 per metric ton at the end of the quarter. Since then, the PLV has dropped from its quarter close level to $238 per metric ton on May 3. The other three indices have also softened from their end-of-quarter levels, with U.S. East Coast indices of Low-Vol, High-Vol A, and High-Vol B measuring $217, $220, and $195 per ton, respectively, as of May 3. In the thermal coal market, the API2 index moved from $101.55 per metric ton on January 2 to $118.25 per metric ton at the end of March, and on May 3, the API2 was at $109 per metric ton. These met coal index numbers certainly suggest softness, but from Alpha's perspective, we believe they may not reflect the full extent of the market deterioration that has occurred in recent weeks or the significant drop-off in sales activity. Before I close my remarks, I want to briefly discuss the March 26 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, which has blocked shipping access to and from Baltimore Harbor. In terms of coal markets and Alpha specifically, we have not used the Baltimore terminals to export our coal in nearly a decade and thus did not have any coal stored there at the time of the bridge collapse. Instead, the vast majority of our export business travels through Dominion Terminal Associates, in which we hold a 65% ownership interest and comparable throughput capacity rights. We also have the ability to use other East Coast terminals for export shipments as necessary or in cases where it is opportunistic for us to do so. Therefore, we do not believe that the bridge’s collapse will have direct effects on our business. We, like other producers, may experience some indirect effects, such as greater competition for rail capacity as companies who have historically exported their products through Baltimore’s port seek alternate options. This increased demand for rail transport may also result in rail congestion, longer shipment times, or higher costs. However, our majority ownership in DTA continues to service well, and we do not expect any material adverse effects from the Baltimore bridge collapse to Alpha’s business. Lastly, speaking of DTA, the team recently completed a planned week-long outage for ship loader maintenance. The maintenance was successful, and the terminal is back to operating at full capacity. Another scheduled equipment maintenance outage is set to occur in mid-May. The downtime is expected to be roughly one week and will only impact one of the stacker/reclaimer machines at the terminal. This means DTA will be able to continue operating with the other equipment, but overall throughput will be less during the time when this machine is down for maintenance. And with that operator, we are now ready to open the call for questions.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. At this time, we’ll be conducting a question-and-answer session. Our first question comes from Lucas Pipes with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Lucas Pipes, Analyst

Thank you very much, operator. Good morning, everyone. Andy, first, I want to tip my hat because you’re probably the only executive who mentions lots of data in the prepared remarks without also mentioning AI, so well done there. But in all seriousness, great job on the cost and productivity side in Q1. And I wondered if you could maybe speak to kind of from here on out, what are some of the key initiatives? They were partially discussed in the prepared remarks, but maybe you could expand on where you’re really looking to drive cost savings from here on out and manage what you describe as a weaker market environment. Thank you.

Andy Eidson, CEO

Sure, Lucas, and I hate that you beat me to the punch on the AI. We’ll get to that maybe next earnings call. We’ll have a lot of work to do on that. But as far as – I think Jason covered a good portion of that, a lot of this is organic productivity improvements. And I’ve got to say, it’s amazing watching Jason and the team work the level of detail that they review their operations at. It really is, I mean, it would be something that could be a test case for AI. It requires a much bigger brain than I currently contain to monitor all the things that they have going on. But the sheer volume of metrics down to whether it’s equipment uptime or any number of things that are being evaluated real-time is pretty incredible. And it’s really – again, across the number of operations we have and the fact that we’re pushing out 17-ish million tons, small changes have pretty significant snowball effects when they’re applied across the entire portfolio. So I don’t really want to get into any specifics unless there are some things that Jason would like to throw at you. But again, it goes back to capturing all the appropriate data that covers every aspect of operations and then being able to cut it in a way that you can really derive some wisdom from. I mean, information without wisdom is kind of pointless, and we've got the right team to take this data and make some significant impact out of it.

Jason Whitehead, President and COO

This is Jason. I'll follow up a little bit. I mean, Andy covered the first half of it really well. And I guess the second part that we're really keying in on now is just with the softening, I guess, of the supply market and things are easier to get now relative to maybe even a few quarters ago, things have really turned around there. So, we want to make sure that we're utilizing our rebuild facilities and our manufacturing facilities to get the absolute best return for Alpha. So, as we're able to pick things up off the shelf, we may see in some cases, it makes sense to shift the things that we're fabricating and we're making for internal use.

Lucas Pipes, Analyst

Thank you very much, Andy and Jason. I want to touch on the market a little bit. From my vantage point, there are kind of a lot of mixed signals. Pricing is seemingly holding in there, but you described demand as softer, and maybe softer than the behold. So, I wondered if you could maybe expand on that and where you see the market today, if there are green shoots or if there are maybe more signs of caution ahead. And you repeated the outlook on the buyback is maybe more muted here in this environment. How should we think about that, and is it – would it be reasonable to expect that if you get to $300 million cash balance, for example, that you would resume cash purchases with any cash in excess of that? Just wondering how you think about that. Thank you.

Andy Eidson, CEO

I will address the second part of your question first and then let Dan discuss the market. Regarding the buyback, we have discussed it previously. We closely monitor our 13-week cash flow forecast. While we are committed to the buyback, we also recognize the importance of adhering to our forecast. Our main objective is to protect the business, especially during uncertain market conditions. We want to ensure we have enough resources to handle any downturns, even if they fall below previously established thresholds. Although I don’t anticipate extreme drops, the situation can change rapidly. We have about a month before our trading window closes, which allows us time to evaluate the market and possibly adjust our buyback strategy based on any trend reversals. For now, I’m hesitant to make any commitments and will prioritize maintaining a comfortable cash balance. Dan can now share his insights on the market.

Dan Horn, Chief Commercial Officer

Yes. Good morning, Lucas.

Lucas Pipes, Analyst

Good morning.

Dan Horn, Chief Commercial Officer

I guess this market, I would describe as still kind of a balanced market. There’s no doubt steel production around the world is down. It’s been a long time, I guess, since I’ve seen all of our markets have kind of depressed steel markets. There’s not a lot of good demand in any markets. India, as you know, is a little weaker than they’ve been in a few years. And I guess a lot of that is obviously due to economic circumstances. Another piece that people don’t talk about as much is that there are a lot of metallurgical coke out there that’s been kind of an overhang situation, and I think that’s affecting our coking coal shipments. That’s starting to work off. So I suppose if you’re looking for a green shoot, one of the green shoots might be that we see some – the coking market pricing starting to go up, and maybe not quite the availability of metallurgical coke, and the number of blast furnaces, hot metal production actually is probably starting to increase too. So – but it won’t happen immediately, we don’t think. So we’re still seeing lower demand than usual and a certain amount of deferrals or delays too. That’s something else that’s a piece of our businesses. Customers will still buy the same tons, but they’ll spread out the shipments just a little bit on us, and that has a cumulative effect as well.

Lucas Pipes, Analyst

Thank you, Dan. Are you seeing any movement on the supply side, either good or bad?

Dan Horn, Chief Commercial Officer

We have heard reports that some mines are idling, which you may have seen in the media. This indicates that production is decreasing in the U.S. Another point worth mentioning is that the thermal coal market has been quite poor over the last year, with a lack of demand during both summer and winter. This has led to an oversupply of thermal coal, some of which is affecting our high vol markets as well. This situation is not often discussed, but the thermal coal ends up competing with our coal, which puts downward pressure on prices. Additionally, we have heard that some thermal operations have also been slowing down.

Lucas Pipes, Analyst

Very helpful. Gentlemen, I really appreciate all the color. Thanks so much and continue. Best of luck.

Andy Eidson, CEO

Thanks, Lucas.

Nathan Martin, Analyst

Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone.

Andy Eidson, CEO

Hey, Nate.

Nathan Martin, Analyst

Maybe I’ll start with kind of a mixed question. I know domestic shipments seasonally light in the first quarter. But it looked like Aussie index export tons also kind of dip below your typical 1/3 or so, let’s call it, a net sales level and then the exports tied to the other pricing mechanisms were about 51% of sales looks like. So Dan, maybe get your thoughts behind kind of the mix drivers there? And then maybe how should we kind of think about that mix evolving with those three buckets here in the second quarter?

Andy Eidson, CEO

And Nate, I guess I’d take exceptions to light. I wouldn’t say it was a light shipping schedule. I think we’re – there’s 4 million tons. But some – there were certainly some deferrals we saw coming out of Asia. So a lighter spot demand and a little bit of deferral. So that did skew the Aussie index-based volumes a bit downward. I probably see that in Q2 as well before it picks up. India still looks real solid for us, but for the reasons that have been addressed, the elections coming up and things. There is – there is definitely both on term and spot business, a little bit less coming out of India. And then just generally Southeast Asia and China, a little slower than we had hoped as well for just overall economic reasons.

Nathan Martin, Analyst

Okay. Got it. And just to clarify then. I was just saying light from an Aussie indexed percentage of sales, not 4 million, 4.1 million tons or light, so that makes sense. I guess sticking with the demand thing; Pacific Basin had been kind of outpacing the Atlantic Basin for a few quarters. Now it sounds like maybe things a little bit weaker near-term in India, as you just mentioned. Maybe could I get your thoughts on Europe? I mean, how are things looking there? Maybe when do you think that market could start to improve?

Dan Horn, Chief Commercial Officer

I think it's safe to say Europe should have produced more hot metal in 2024 than they did in 2022. That seems to be in the cards. Several of our customers have more blast furnaces operating. As I mentioned, there's an overhang on coke. And with the low coke prices, there's a fair amount of purchase going into Europe that probably won't last. In my experience, that lasts for a while, and then when the cheap coke gets worked off, the cokeries begin producing more of their own. So I tend to think Europe will start to pick up. And that probably applies to South America as well.

Nathan Martin, Analyst

Okay. Got it. Thanks for that color. And then maybe shifting over to DTA, I know some prepared remarks there, specifically some comments, I guess, on the Baltimore port outage related to transportation. But did you guys see any benefit maybe from the Baltimore port outage as far as tonnage necessarily needing to shift away and likely Hinton Roads taking the majority of that?

Dan Horn, Chief Commercial Officer

I guess short answer would be no, Nate. We're moving clicking along with our business as we had before. We got a few phone calls right after the bridge collapse, but it didn't really translate into any spot business. We know that there's a fair amount of Norfolk Southern base business that's moved to Lamberts Point, that would have shipped out of Baltimore, and that probably – we probably got back in the queue a little bit there. So that's a minor effect, I think, on Alpha would be – there's just – there's a little more volume going out of Amber's point than there was prior. But as far as DTA, I'd have to say we didn't see any effects.

Nathan Martin, Analyst

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, President and COO

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. I suspect that's just due to the general state of the market. I mean, we're not the only ones, we all have the same problems. These things go together.

Nathan Martin, Analyst

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

Andy Eidson, CEO

Thanks, Nate.

Todd Munsey, CFO

Thank you.

Operator, Operator

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

Lucas Pipes, Analyst

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, CEO

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.

Todd Munsey, CFO

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, Analyst

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, CEO

Well, I think we've kind of hit it a little bit on previous calls. We're always looking; 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, Analyst

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

Andy Eidson, CEO

All right, thanks, Lucas.

Operator, 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, CEO

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

Operator, Operator

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