Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Natural Resource Partners Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ms. Tiffany Sammis, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners Second Quarter 2021 Conference Call. Today's call is being webcast and a replay will be available on our website. Joining me today, are Craig Nunez, President and Chief Operating Officer; Chris Zolas, Chief Financial Officer; and Kevin Craig, Executive Vice President. Some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements, reflecting NRP’s views about future events. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in NRP’s Form 10-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our second quarter press release, which can be found on our website. I would like to remind everyone that we do not intend to discuss the operations or outlook for any particular coal lessee or detailed market fundamentals. In addition, I refer you to general resources, public disclosures and commentary for specific questions regarding our Soda Ash business segment. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Craig Nunez, our President and Chief Operating Officer.

Thank you, Tiffany, and good morning all. NRP continues to operate under CDC guidelines and company pandemic work protocols. I am pleased to report that our business continues to improve, as the global economy recovers from the pandemic-induced shock that began last year. Demand for metallurgical coal, thermal coal and soda ash is strong and prices for those commodities have increased significantly since the beginning of the year. While the current resurgence of COVID-19 infections in the US and various regions of the world highlights the ongoing risk that COVID-19 poses for the global economy, we remain cautiously optimistic that the worst impacts of the pandemic for our company are behind us. Furthermore, and as you've heard me say repeatedly in the past, we remain quite pleased with the partnership's durability during challenging economic environment, as demonstrated by its ability to generate free cash flow, continue paying down debt and maintain strong liquidity throughout the past 1.5 years. We believe, this durability will continue. Over the last 12 months, we generated $75 million of free cash flow and paid off $46 million of debt. Our cash flow cushion, which is the free cash flow remaining after paying our private placement debt amortizations and distributions on our common and preferred units was negative by only $13 million. We continue to focus on and maintain robust liquidity and ended the quarter with $98 million of cash and $100 million of unused borrowing capacity. Demand and prices for metallurgical coal are up significantly from the beginning of the year. Resurgence in steel demand, driven by global economic recovery is more than offsetting continued pandemic-related challenges for met coal. The ongoing China-Australia political and trade dispute appears to have been a positive for US producers, as Chinese manufacturers, realign supply chains to procure met…

Thank you, Craig, and good morning, everyone. During the second quarter, we generated $13 million of operating cash flow and $15 million of net income. Our Coal Royalty and other segment generated $32 million of operating cash flow, and $26 million of net income during this period. Our Coal Royalty and Other segment second quarter free cash flow was flat quarter-over-quarter as improved coal royalty cash flow and stronger demand and pricing for coal in the second quarter of 2021 was offset by the timing of fixed payments from Foresight as they emerged from bankruptcy in the second quarter of last year. Our Coal Royalty and Other segment second quarter, net income improved $134 million as compared to the prior year quarter, primarily because of $132 million non-cash asset impairment expense in the second quarter of last year resulting from weakened coal markets, which were compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Excluding asset impairments, net income improved slightly quarter-over-quarter as increases in coal royalty revenues and lower operating and maintenance expenses were partially offset by higher DD&A driven by increased production at certain Illinois Basin coal properties, as well as certain onetime items in 2020. Metallurgical coal made up approximately 50% of our total coal royalty sales volumes and approximately 65% of our coal royalty revenue during the second quarter of 2021. Moving to our Soda Ash business segment. Net income in the second quarter of 2021, improved $6 million as compared to the previous year quarter primarily due to strength in soda ash demand and increased sales volumes that were partially offset by increased ocean freight rates compared to the second year quarter of 2020. Free cash flow in the second quarter of 2021, was lower by $7 million as compared to the prior year quarter due to Ciner Wyoming's…

Thank you, operator. And thank you all for listening to our call and reading our transcript. And thank you for your support of NRP and we look forward to talking to you next quarter. Best regards.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.