Good morning. My name is Rob, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Natural Resource Partners L.P. Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Ms. Tiffany Sammis, Manager of Investor Relations. You may now begin your conference.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners Third 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 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 third quarter press release, which can be found on our website. I'd 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. Good morning, all. I am pleased to report that our business is delivering impressive performance, supported by strong demand for metallurgical coal, thermal coal and soda ash. Having rightsized our business and cost structure in the years preceding COVID-19, the partnership showed great resiliency during the depths of the pandemic and is now ideally positioned to capitalize on the positive near and intermediate-term outlook for each of our business lines. We expect to generate robust free cash flow in the months ahead and plan to continue using that cash to pay down debt, to solidify our liquidity and maintain our common unit distribution. We continue to believe that delevering and derisking the partnership in this manner is the most effective way to maximize unitholder value. Over the last 12 months, we generated $81 million of free cash flow and paid off $39 million of debt. We expect our free cash flow to grow significantly in the coming months. 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, came in at $3.7 million over the last 12 months after two quarters in negative territory. The partnership continues to maintain robust liquidity and ended the quarter with $119 million of cash and $100 million of unused borrowing capacity. Demand and prices for metallurgical coal continued their dramatic rise as strong demand for steel is more than offsetting lingering pandemic-related challenges. The ongoing China, Australia political and trade dispute continues to be a positive for U.S. net producers as Chinese manufacturers procure met coal from other regions, allowing North American coal to make its way to destinations previously served by Australian producers. While we have no way to predict the timing or eventual…

Thank you, Craig, and good morning, everyone. During the third quarter, we generated $30 million of operating cash flow and $29 million of net income. Our Coal Royalty and Other segment generated $34 million of operating cash flow and $37 million of net income during the third quarter of 2021. Our third quarter free cash flow improved $6 million and our third quarter net income improved $17 million quarter-over-quarter, primarily driven by stronger demand and pricing for metallurgical coal in the third quarter 2021. The metallurgical coal made up approximately 45% of our total coal royalty sales volumes and approximately 65% of our coal royalty revenue during the third quarter of 2021. Moving on to our Soda Ash business segment. Net income in the third quarter of 2021 improved $5 million as compared to the previous year quarter, primarily due to increased demand for soda ash from the lows caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Free cash flow in the third quarter of 2021 was flat as compared to the prior year quarter due to Ciner Wyoming's decision to suspend their quarterly distribution in August of 2020. However, as Craig just mentioned, Ciner Wyoming has reinstated their quarterly cash distributions as market demand continues to improve from the lows seen during the COVID-19 genemic. We expect to receive a $7 million cash distribution in the fourth quarter of 2021. Our Corporate and Financing segment costs and cash used in operations were slightly lower in the third quarter of 2021 compared to our prior year quarter primarily due to less debt outstanding in 2021. Our leverage ratio, as of September 30, 2021, was 3.8x, a substantial reduction from the 4.6% ratio we had at the end of the previous quarter. Regarding distributions. In August, we paid a quarterly $0.45 per common year…

[Operator Instructions]. And we do have a question comes from the line of Steve Berman [ph].

My question is, I guess, general. What's the status in China? I had heard something -- first of all, how important is what's going on with China's usage of coal and your outlook? And I also had heard that they were putting their price freeze on what they would pay for coal. And this is what -- I think this would be met coal. I mean thermal coal.

Kevin, do you want to take it?

Sure. This is Kevin Craig. Thank you for your questions. Obviously, China is a market for coal. It's important, not only to NRP, but to world coal market. We've watched the Chinese and Australian issues they've had over the past year. And it certainly has had an impact on U.S. coal producers. And to date, we believe it's been a positive impact. So we remain in tune with what is going on in China. And we've certainly seen the improvement in the coal market over the past year, given or in spite of some of the political issues that occur.

[Operator Instructions]. And there are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to Mr. Craig Nunez for some closing remarks.

Thank you very much, and thank all of you for participating in our call today, and thank you for your support of NRP. And please call our Investor Relations line if you have any follow-up questions you want to discuss matters further, and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Have a great day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.