Good morning. My name is Chris and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Natural Resource Partners L.P. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there'll be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you, Tiffany Sammis. Manager Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the Natural Resource Partners' fourth quarter 2022 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 fourth 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 co-lessee or detailed market fundamentals. In addition, I refer you to Sisecam Resources' public disclosures and public disclosures and commentary for specific questions regarding our Soda Ash segments. 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. I would like to begin by thanking our employees for their outstanding contributions, executing our strategy to delever and de-risk the partnership. I'd also like to thank our equity investors, bondholders and banks for your enduring support. And a special word of appreciation is owed to our board of directors for its wise guidance and counsel. When we embarked on our new strategy seven years ago, the partnership was in a precarious financial position, with almost $1.5 billion of debt, representing more than two thirds of our capital structure. Our bonds were trading at $0.65 on the dollar. And our free cash flow was negative. Our future looked bleak. We responded by exercising extraordinary financial discipline to aggressively cut cost, eliminate capital expenditures, and sell off underperforming assets, with an incessant focus on delivering and de risking the capital structure. Today, I'm proud to say that the partnership is dramatically healthier and financially stronger than it was seven years ago. We have rightsized the business from four business segments down to two, both of which now earn returns on capital well in excess of their cost of capital. Our operating and interest expenses are each more than 70% lower than they were when we began. And our free cash flow, which had been negative exceeded a quarter of a $1 billion in 2022. A record for the partnership. Our debt, which had been almost $1.5 billion, had declined more than 80% to 169 million at year-end. The financial profile of today's NRP is so remarkably improved from that of seven years ago, that it would be hardly recognizable to anyone who hadn't followed the transformation. I am especially proud that these results have been achieved without the use of sly legal manoeuvres, debt…

Thank you, Craig. During the fourth quarter, we generated $69 million of operating cash flow, and $63 million of net income. For the full year, we generated $267 million of operating cash flow, and 268 million in net income, both more than twice the prior year, full year amounts. These significant increases were driven by high met coal prices and increased cash distributions received from our Soda Ash business. Moving to our segment results, our mineralized segment generated $68 million of operating cash flow and $63 million of net income in the fourth quarter, and $263 million of operating cash flow and $267 million of net income for the full year of 2022. Metallurgical coal made up 65% of our coal royalty revenues during the fourth quarter 2022 and 70% of our coal royalty revenues for the full year of 2022. When compared to the prior year quarter, both segment free cash flow and net income were relatively flat. However, when compared to the prior full year, segment free cash flow increased $104 million and net income improved 124 million. As you may recall, we began to see the benefits of higher metallurgical pricing at the end of the third quarter of 2021 to mineralized segment fourth quarter 2022 results were relatively flat compared to the prior year quarter, and was a significant increase in free cash flow year over year, driven by a full year of strong met coal prices in 2022. Shifting to our Soda Ash business segment, net income in the fourth quarter and full year of 2022 was $16 million and $60 million respectively. These amounts were $5 million and $38 million higher compared to the prior year periods, both primarily driven by higher international Soda Ash sales prices. Free cash flow from our Soda Ash…

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] It appears that we have no questions I'll turn it over to Craig Nunez for any closing comments. : :

Thank you. The future remains uncertain, commodity prices remain volatile and financial markets are going to remain unpredictable. However, due to the significant accomplishments of our team over the past seven years, along with our improved business performance, positive outlook and most importantly, our stronger financial position, we believe we are now well prepared for future challenges. We are steadfast in our commitment to pay off all permanent debt, redeem all preferred equity and settle all warrants in order to maximize long term free cash flow available for common unitholders. We remain confident this path is the best approach to maximizing long term common unitholder value. Thank you for participating in our call today. And thank you for your continued support of NRP.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.