Thank you for standing by. My name is Pam, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Natural Resource Partners L.P. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tiffany Sammis, Manager of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners First Quarter 2024 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 statements 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 first 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. Now I would like to turn the call over to Craig Nunez, our President and Chief Operating Officer.

Thank you, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. NRP generated $72 million of free cash flow in the first quarter and $312 million of free cash flow over the last 12 months. This robust cash generation has allowed us to make noteworthy progress toward our goal of eliminating all financial obligations. As of today, our total remaining obligations, which include debt and preferred equity, stand at approximately $240 million, a 45% decrease from just 1 year ago. Since embarking on our derisking strategy in 2015, we have settled 100% of the outstanding warrants, paid off nearly 90% of our debt and redeemed more than 70% of the preferred equity. We stand firm in our belief that this is the best strategy to maximize the intrinsic value of our business, which should in turn, maximize long-term unitholder returns. The primary drivers of our recent strong performance were historically high prices for both metallurgical coal and soda ash, which have declined from record highs and will likely remain volatile for the foreseeable future. We believe that muted investment in new met coal supply will provide support for prices but not at the record high levels seen in recent years. Soda ash prices are also under pressure from a significant increase in global capacity from new projects in China, Turkey and the United States. We believe it will take several years for the market to absorb these new supplies. While we expect the partnership's free cash flow to decline from 2023's record level due to these factors, our capital structure is solid and improving, and we anticipate the business will continue to generate robust levels of free cash flow for the foreseeable future. We expect to remain on track to pay off all debt and preferred stock while paying common unit distributions to help…

Thank you, Craig. In the first quarter of 2024, NRP generated $71 million of operating cash flow and $56 million of net income despite weakening in both coal and soda ash markets. Moving to our segment results. Our Mineral Rights segment generated $70 million of operating cash flow and $61 million of net income during the first quarter of 2024. When compared to the prior year, our Mineral Rights segment's net income and operating cash flow decreased $8 million and $4 million, respectively, primarily due to lower metallurgical coal prices. Regarding our met thermal coal royalty mix, metallurgical coal made up approximately 75% of our coal royalty revenues and 50% of sales volumes in the first quarter of 2024. Shifting to our Soda Ash business segment. Net income in the first quarter of 2024 decreased $14 million as compared to the prior year quarter due to increased supply from China that resulted in significantly lower international sales prices, slightly lower domestic sales prices and lower sales volumes compared to the prior year quarter. Operating cash flow from this segment increased $4 million as compared to the prior year quarter. As Craig mentioned earlier, the distribution we received in Q1 of 2024 was paid in connection with the fourth quarter of 2023 performance. A period with higher international and domestic sales prices. Moving to our Corporate and Financing segment. First quarter 2024 net income and operating cash flow decreased $1 million primarily due to higher interest expense and cash paid for interest because of increased borrowings outstanding on the credit facility that were used to settle warrants. In the first quarter of 2024, we settled 1.2 million warrants with a combination of $56 million of cash and issuing a bit less than 200,000 NRP common units. And in April, we settled…

[Operator Instructions]. The first question comes from the line of Nat Stewart of N.A.S. Capital LLC.

I just had one question. Is there any update on anything going on with the existing agreements for the carbon storage? Is there any updates on the permitting process? Or any information you might have on what's going on there?

Unfortunately, we do not.

There are no questions. I will now turn the conference back over to Craig Nunez for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for participating in our call, and thank you for your continued support of NRP. Have a great day. Bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.