Good morning and welcome to the NACCO Industries' 2023 First Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Brika and I will be your event specialist running today's call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode, and after the speakers' prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to Christina Kmetko. So, Christina, you may proceed.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to 2023 First Quarter Earnings Call. Thank you for joining us this morning. I’m Christina Kmetko, and I’m responsible for Investor Relations at NACCO Industries. Joining me today are J.C. Butler, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Elizabeth Loveman, Vice President and Controller. Yesterday, we published our first quarter 2023 results and filed our 10-Q. This information is available on our website. Today’s call is also being webcast. The webcast will be on our website later this afternoon and available for approximately 12 months. Our remarks to follow, including answers to your questions, contain forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to several risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements made here today. These risks include, among others, matters that we’ve described in our earnings release issued last night and in our 10-Q and other filings with the SEC. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, which may not be updated until our next quarterly earnings conference call, if at all. In addition, we’ll be discussing non-GAAP information that we believe is useful in evaluating the company’s operating performance. Reconciliations for these non-GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and on our website. In a moment, I’ll discuss our results for the quarter. But first, let me turn the call over to our President and CEO, J.C. Butler, for some opening remarks. J.C.?

Thank you, Christy, and good morning, everyone. Our first quarter 2023 results were not as strong as the results we’ve reported in 2021 and 2022, but that was to be expected. Results in those prior quarters benefited from significantly higher natural gas prices and income generated by the early termination of 2 of our coal mining contracts. We -- we explained on our last quarterly call that we expected 2023 results to decrease significantly due to those factors as well as a reduction in earnings of Mississippi Lignite Mining Company as it moves into a new mine area. That is what played out in the first quarter. Christy will go into more detail about our first quarter earnings and provide an overview of our outlook in a minute. But first, let me provide a few thoughts on the quarter and our future expectations. As we described in the earnings release, significantly lower results at both our Coal Mining and Minerals Management segments drove the decrease in our first quarter operating results. We’ve talked quite a bit over the last few years about moving Mississippi Lignite Mining Company’s Red Hills mine into a new mine area. That is one of the primary reasons for the substantial decrease in our Coal Mining segment’s operating profit. At Red Hills we’re dealing with operational inefficiencies as we complete final mining at the existing mine area, while we’re also incurring significant costs associated with moving to the new mine area. These higher costs and inefficiencies are expected to continue through much of 2023, but these costs could -- should moderate by the end of the year when we are fully operational in the new mine area. If you’ll recall that we’ve invested significant capital to open this new mine area, which is why we’ve been…

Thank you, J.C. I’ll start with some high-level comments on our consolidated first quarter financial results and then add detail on our individual segments. As J.C. mentioned, our first quarter 2023 results were significantly lower than the 2022 first quarter. On a consolidated basis, our 2023 first quarter operating profit decreased $1.8 million from an operating profit of almost $15 million in the prior year first quarter. Consolidated net income decreased to $5.7 million or $0.76 per share compared with net income of $12.6 million or a $1.72 per share last year. EBITDA decreased to $10.8 million, roughly half of the prior year EBITDA of $21.4 million. These decreases were primarily due to significantly lower earnings in the Coal Mining and Minerals Management segment with substantial decrease in income tax expense and other income of $1.2 million from post-closing purchase price adjustment related to the 2022 Midwest AgEnergy transaction as well as higher interest income, partly offset to significant operating profit decrease. Coal Mining first quarter 2023 operating profit and segment adjusted EBITDA decreased significantly compared with last year, primarily due to the substantial decrease in Missippi Lignite Mining Company results and lower earnings of the unconsolidated operations. These declines were partly offset by a reduction in coal mining operating expenses. A significant increase in the cost per ton sold drove the lower Mississippi results. As J.C. discussed in his remarks, the cost per ton increase was due to the inefficiencies and additional costs incurred to establish the new mining area. A $2.4 million write-down of inventory to net realizable value also contributed to the significant increase in the cost per ton. J.C. already explained the primary reasons behind the decreases in Mineral Management’s lower results as well as North American Mining’s lower first quarter operating profit. So let me…

Well, I think that concludes our Q&A since I don’t see any questions. I’ll close with a few final reminders. A replay of our call will be available online later this morning. We’ll also post a transcript on the Investor Relations website when it becomes available. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. You can reach me at the phone number on the press release. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. And now I’ll turn the call back to Brika to conclude the call.

Thank you. This concludes today’s call. Please note, a replay will be available until Thursday, May 11. Please dial 1-929-458-6194 and enter the access code 960936. Thank you. You may now disconnect your lines.