Earnings call transcript: Whitehaven Coal Q3 2025 sees strong production and stock surge

Whitehaven Coal Ltd (WHC) reported its third-quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings, highlighting a robust production performance and a significant improvement in its financial position. The company’s stock price rose by 4.74%, closing at $5.08, buoyed by strong production numbers and a positive outlook. The company’s net cash balance improved from a $1 billion net debt to $300 million, reflecting effective financial management. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company maintains a FAIR financial health score, with particularly strong cash flow metrics.

Key Takeaways

• Whitehaven Coal’s Q3 FY2025 production reached 9.2 million tonnes.
• The company transitioned from a $1 billion net debt to a $300 million net cash position.
• Stock price increased by 4.74% following the earnings announcement.
• Metallurgical coal accounted for 61% of the revenue mix.

Company Performance

Whitehaven Coal demonstrated strong operational performance in Q3 FY2025, with a total managed production of 9.2 million tonnes and equity sales of 6.3 million tonnes. The company’s strategic focus on both metallurgical and thermal coal markets has allowed it to capitalize on favorable market conditions. The improvement in the cash position from a significant net debt to a net cash balance underscores the company’s financial resilience and operational efficiency.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue mix: 61% metallurgical coal, 39% thermal coal
• Net cash balance: $300 million, improved from $1 billion net debt
• Average coal sales price: AUD $2.21 per ton

Outlook & Guidance

Whitehaven Coal remains optimistic about its future performance, maintaining its full-year guidance. The company expects ROM and sales to fall in the upper half of its FY2025 guidance, with unit costs trending at the lower end. The company is also reviewing its capital outlook for the Narrabri Stage 3 project, indicating potential for further cost optimization. InvestingPro analysts forecast the company will remain profitable this year, with projected earnings per share of $0.70 for FY2025. For deeper insights into Whitehaven Coal’s financial outlook and comprehensive analysis, investors can access the detailed Pro Research Report, available exclusively to InvestingPro subscribers.

Executive Commentary

CEO Paul Flynn emphasized the company’s focus on cost reduction and operational efficiency. "We are seeing savings coming through now with procurement," he stated, highlighting the company’s strategic initiatives to improve its financial standing. Flynn also noted the flexibility in capital expenditure, saying, "We do have flexibility, but we want to make sure that we deliver CapEx guidance."

Risks and Challenges

• Supply chain constraints could impact production and delivery schedules.
• Market volatility in coal prices remains a concern.
• Regulatory changes in environmental policies could affect operations.
• Potential delays in project expansions, such as the Narrabri Stage 3.

Whitehaven Coal’s performance in Q3 FY2025 reflects its strong operational capabilities and strategic financial management. The positive market reaction underscores investor confidence in the company’s future prospects, supported by its robust production and improved financial position.

Full transcript - Whitehaven Coal Ltd (WHC) Q3 2025:

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Good morning, everybody, and thanks very much for taking the time to dial into our March 2025 quarterly production report. I’ve got the team here with me this morning with Kevin and Ian both in attendance for you to answer questions and, of course, supported by the IR team as well. So I know everybody’s had a busy time and continue to have a busy week with preceding weeks being shorter ones, and I know there’s lots of reporting and people would pressure to get to other calls. So we’ll try and get through our our report quickly and onto the q and a. Broadly, we’ve had a very, very decent quarter, in fact.

So we’re very pleased with the results that we’ve been able to produce despite the up and down weather that everybody well understands that’s occurred across the beginning of FY 2025 calendar. So I’ll go through the numbers, and obviously, there’ll be lots of commentary about the impacts of that weather, and I’m sure the q and a will feature there as well. So from a trip trip perspective, a solid result, 4.9 for the quarter, not our best work, but certainly more work to be done there. But we’ll continue to focus this and make sure we can drive this down lower with the enlarged footprint. Our managed from production at 9.2 was actually a pretty good result.

And the 5% down on December, but December was good. So so quarter on quarter, we’ve actually done very well despite the weather. The equity sales, I’ll talk a little bit more about that at 6.3 was there’s a decent outcome. Again, December was big, so that movement looks a little bit more dramatic. But that was where the weather impacts were most were most obvious on the coast and at the port, and I’ll get on to that a little bit further.

The revenue mix for the quarter at 61% met, 39% thermal. Overall, our net cash balance obviously has changed a little bit here, and we’ll get to that a little bit later as well, the 300,000,000.0, so $300,300,000, sorry, on a net cash balance as opposed to 1,000,000,000 net debt for the previous quarter following the the receipt of the proceeds from the JV formation at Blackwater. And of course, we’ve made the first payment just past the cutoff point for the quarter of the $500,000,000 US first deferred payment to BMA as a result of the deferred settlement payments. And again, we’ll come back to that a little bit later. So say Queensland’s done a really good job in terms of managing the weather impacts.

Pretty pleased with the way the teams manage themselves there. Wrong production there, four and a half million tonnes there. Queensland had a good result considering the weather impact sales, 3.4. Again, down, looked dramatic, but actually, when you look at it, December was a good a good period for us. So the impacts have been well well managed from our perspective.

Average coal sales at Aussie $2.21 per ton is a is a decent result. The FY ’25 realizations there are in 79% range that we’ve spoken about repeatedly. We are on track to deliver our savings targets for the year, that’s very positive. And we’ll continue to drive that hard in this last quarter of the year. South Wales has had a solid quarter.

Also, have had weather, but had a solid quarter with all our open cuts doing well and Narborough obviously coming to the end of Panel two zero three. Management on production of 4.7, good results, 7% different from December. December quarter, the equity sales of 2.9 were down 10% on the quarter. The average coal price realized in Aussie dollar terms, $1.82 achieved for New South Wales. And and with a March realization for thermal coal of 108% of the GC nuke average for that same period.

So a solid on production across the sites with the exception of Narrabri, which is labored to get to the end of the two zero three panel, which it has done now. And I’m sure we’ll have a question or two about that a little bit later. Just over the page, we’ve got the production totals there for you. So I’m not going to go through those at great length for you. You can see that.

And I’ll move on to the commentary about the results themselves. The Queensland operations, as I say, very solid. We’re happy with the performance of Queensland team during what has been quite a volatile period. I mean, it’s been reported ad nauseam already by various players about the weather impacts that have played out over the last three months, and everybody’s well aware of the big rain periods and obviously, tropical cyclone Alfred and its impact on Queensland terribly up there for for the people and inhabitants there is affected by flooding. But the positive of all of that is our team have managed them very well sells very well.

So they’re used to making the contingency plans necessary to manage manage this and have been able to keep production at a reasonable level. Now, the major impacts that you see flowing through the quarter itself are actually on the sales side of things because we did have quite a few periods of disruption at the ports, More so DVCT than than you would have seen at Gladstone. So MacKay was much more affected by that. Again, it’s been well reported by others that the rainfall seasons as they compare to various other previous periods, I think you had records. You’d have to go back at least ten years to find more rainfall in that period, at Morabasay, for instance.

So big impacts there. But overall, happy 4.5 in tonnes, 3,400,000.0 in sales is a good result given all of all of that change. The stocks are decent, not not huge, but decent at 1.5 in Queensland. So say, we’re on track for a hundred million tonnes a hundred million dollars cost reduction by the end of this financial twenty five year. Dornier’s production at 1,200,000 tons was lower, but certainly dealing with the weather there has been a battle with this higher than average historic rainfall.

Like I say, you’d have to go at least ten years to find higher rainfalls during this period at Moranbah. And Blackwater, I think, managed itself well in terms of having other options to move around in the pit, given all the opportunities and options you have. And our decision to accelerate the blasted inventory recovery there ahead of the wet season certainly has paid some dividends there, but it has curtailed our opportunity to address the buildup in pre strip inventories that we’re focused on. And so the balance of this calendar year will be spent doing that. But we’re happy with 3.2 in terms of ROM.

Certainly compares well to December, and the sales of 2.6 was a decent outcome also. New South Wales operations, as I said, the summary there is that the open cuts did well. Narrowburai did certainly labor towards the end of 02/2003. It has been done, and so we are in the change out process, which is good. But 4,700,000 tonnes the quarter leaves us in a decent position with one quarter remaining to square away the year.

So all mines have done pretty well. Narrow Roy, as I say, has now finished its panel, so that’s good. The relocation is occurring as we speak. There’s an eight week period rather than the six week we normally take. We’ve added two weeks just to remind everybody just because there’s a little bit more maintenance that we wanna get done during this period.

So this relocation has been extended by an extra two weeks, which is consistent with what we’ve been saying since the beginning of the year. But overall, malls at 2.8, four percent down on December, but a solid result. Sales 2.3. Good sales performance there. Gundar Ops, you’ve got Tarrawonga delivering a reasonable outcome, and Vickery starting to ramp up, which is which is nice.

So overall, New South Wales, I think has put put in a good quarter and leaves us well positioned for the final quarter for the year. The markets the markets themselves and pricing, just to go through that quickly for you, at 6,300,000.0 in in overall sales, 3.4 to 2.9 being the split between Queensland and New South Wales respectively. We’re down on the December quarter, but as I mentioned earlier, December was a very strong quarter. So part of that difference is it’s just the comparison between a very strong period versus one that’s been weather affected. The sales mix of revenue, as I mentioned, 61 to 39.

I think that’s predictable in terms of where it went overall. Queensland operations, AUD $2.21. I think that’s a decent outcome as well. The average of Platts for the POV hard coke was 185. For the period, we achieved 142.

So we’re to do the math in terms of the realizations. We’re giving you the splits there just between the primary and secondary coking products there for your information. So 59 in terms of the primary products, 38% in the secondary products, and there was a balancing thermal component that came out during the course of the quarter, which is quite small. New South Wales operations achieved an average of 182 Aussie for sales during the quarter. The average for the the index across that period was US $1.00 5, and we achieved one one three for the same period.

So decent decent result. Year to date average there in New South Wales about one thirty, which is again reasonable outcomes. Market backdrop, I don’t think there’s too much that we can say here that’s that’s new news to anyone here. I mean, the of course, there is the uncertainty with various trade and and geopolitical things going on at the moment, but but in both both thermal and the met coal markets, we are sort of characterized by well supplied markets at the moment. So we are seeing a little bit more of emerging emerging interest in the in the hard coke side of the business, I have to say.

So that’s nice to be able to see that. Obviously, there’s been a number of different supply side events which have been a cause to tighten that market. And I know that in Queensland, our team are receiving quite a few inbound calls about cold. And so that’s that obviously is driving the recent the recent firming, if I can say that, of the hard coke price now poking its head above the the $1.90 mark, which is good. And I think this weather impacts are going to continue to draw that even tighter.

So we do think that there’s, with the supply side, issues associated with other events, non weather related, and the weather overlay now that people have had a series of months now here which have caused difficulties from a production perspective in some pits, you’re going to see that the hardcake index continue to improve, which would be positive. On the thermal side of things, we are seeing that market well supplied. Not particular movement there, but we do see strong support around the $90 mark a little bit more, but that’s a positive thing. But our customers are taking all their contracted volumes, so we sit well positioned and very well sold. Just to add, there’s nothing to sell in the balance of this year, of course.

And we’re well sold out into the next year. So we don’t have a big spot exposure and therefore, we don’t really bear much of a brunt of seasonal changes in that regard in terms of supply demand side of things. The fundamentals of both of our markets remain the same. You know, our belief is that both these markets, met and thermal, are supply constrained, and and our view on that hasn’t changed at all. On the production cost side of things, we continue to perform well and continue to track at the bottom of our guidance.

You saw the half year results that we posted at 137. We do have a change up, so there’s less volume in the second half, although the open cuts have got a a second half weighted performance for this year. So this next quarter will be a good one volumetrically. And we think we can hold our cost at the bottom of our guidance here. And we’ve given you the average number of royalties across the group, north and south, at $24 a tonne.

Balance sheet, despite the only one paragraph referencing, the balance sheet has actually got quite a bit of attention during the course of this quarter, given that we have received the funds for the settlement of the JV at Blackwater. And then, as I mentioned before, immediately after the closure of the quarter, we paid our first payment to BMA. So the balance sheet sits in good shape, and we’re a very positive position to work our way through whatever sort of softer market conditions we find ourselves in for the next little while. It aims to be, as I say, the first one paid. So that’s one down, one big one to go in a year’s time.

So 500,000,000 US to be paid on the 04/02/2026. We’re in a very good position to be able to deal with And just for the purpose of the calculation, for the contingent payments, given the average pricing that we’ve received across this period, we’re estimating we’re in the 9,000,000 to $10,000,000 type range that’s payable to BMA as a result of the contingent upside sharing arrangements. Now that needs to be verified over the next month or two and paid in early July, but relatively modest sum given the pricing environment. So that mechanism is working as it’s intended to ensure that in a softer price environment, we’re obviously not exposed to revenue sharing of any great significance. From a buyback and capital returns perspective, the quarter we paid our dividend, and of course, we reinitiated the buyback.

But of course, we fell straight into a period that we were restricted with the end of the March. So we basically had a period between now and then where we haven’t been participating in the market from a buyback perspective. But of course, now that the results are out, then we’ll be able to look at resuming that. So you can see that we’ve taken that 1,660,000.00 shares during the course of the period that we were able to trade for a total of $9,300,000 spent. Just for the record there, there are development development expenditure across Vickery and Winchester that we’ve noted for you.

As far as Narrabri underground stage three goes, not much to to note there other than other than given the pricing backdrop that we find ourselves, we are reviewing very closely the capital outlook for for Narrabri as we mentioned. And we had previously said that we’d like to get out to you a revised and downward capital estimate for Narrabri Stage three, which we are relooking at. So we will be publishing that with our year end results now. We do have some compliance related matters just to make sure our joint venture partners are happy with the revision to those numbers, lower as they are, but we’ll make sure that that comes out for you with the full year numbers at the end of the year. Winchester South, not a lot to note there other than to say that we’re spending a bit of money with lawyers preparing for the annoying period that is the land court reviews, which will start in July 2025.

Wrapping all that up, our guidance remains unchanged, which is very good. From a ROM and sales perspective, we’re firmly in the upper half of our on the upper half of our FY twenty five guidance. And on unit costs, we’re certainly trending at the bottom end of our cost guidance, which is great to say. So a really good position overall. The tables that follow on for the individual splits of production for the reach of the sites and sales and so on.

I’ll leave that for you to wade your way through and then realize pricing over on the following page for everyone as well. But overall, from our perspective, a very solid quarter. Well done to the team for managing the weather impacts across both states. And I’ll hand back to the operator now for opening of q and a. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Thank you, sell side analysts. Your first question comes from Jonathan Sharpe with CLSA. Please go ahead.

Jonathan Sharpe, Analyst, CLSA: Yes. Hi, Paul and team, and congratulations on the good result given all the weather impact you had. Just the first question on costs and with the prices down where they are, getting the costs out is going to be key. And it seems like Queensland is going quite well. So I’m more interested in New South Wales, just how much focus is in getting costs out of New South Wales?

How concerned are you with that? And if you could just comment on that for my first question. Thanks.

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Yes. Thanks, Jonathan. Yes. Queensland, as you say, quite logically, given the recent nature of that acquisition, is getting lots of focus in reshaping that business, and and we’re making good progress in that regard. That’s not to say, as you you rightly question, has New South Wales received its its level of attention in that regard?

And I and I can tell you that the scrutiny is being placed on New South Wales in exactly the same way that you would expect. So that’s not just on CapEx, of course, for we’re in that budget phase now of preparing for next year. So there is a magnifying glass being passed over all the all the capital required for the business, but also the OpEx base of the business and how we’re going to lift productivity and drive our costs down. We are seeing just on this side of things. We are seeing savings coming through now with procurement on this the procurement side of the business.

It has been a while since I’ve seen that. And now that we’re actually seeing renewal of contracts and services have been provided in the business, we are actually seeing the inflationary impacts, were evident in our in our services and contract provision starting to moderate, which is which is good. That’s part of the puzzle. The other part of it for us is obviously the productivity, and we’ve got to we’ve got to focus at all of our mines to make sure that we’re actually lifting the tonnes in order to bring down the costs of the business. Now, we’ve highlighted for you in previous quarters some of the structural costs that will change in our outlook over time, But the more immediate focus at the moment is to make sure we’re seeing productivity improvements at all the sites in New South Wales.

Jonathan Sharpe, Analyst, CLSA: Okay. Great. That’s some good insight. And just a question just on the Narrabri longwall move. It’s been pushed back slightly.

I know you’re still scheduling eight week longwall move, I believe you previously said there was about 80 supports coming out to the surface for more maintenance. I know it can get a little bit tricky when longwall moves get pushed out just with scheduling that maintenance. Has anything changed there with the support maintenance? Are you still looking at doing the same amount? Are they all still coming out?

Just some comments on that, please.

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Jonathan. Yeah. Look, nothing particularly changed.

Look, productivity slowed during the back end of that panel. That was a bit annoying from our perspective just to try and get to the end of that panel and move on to a panel which we know to be less affected by these structures, which is great. The maintenance schedule itself continues as we previously said. The only complication of that, might say, just at a small level, and we’re talking about a day here or there, is that as it slid to the right, important pieces of that puzzle or that maintenance work did slide into the easter long way when have travel restrictions on us in terms of moving big equipment in and out. And so there’s a few there’s a few no go days in there that that were a bit annoying.

But that is the way of the world. And public holidays and events like that, you can’t move big equipment around because of traffic related interactions. So that that’s basically otherwise, it’s it’s tracking along. Ian, you wanna add?

Ian, Executive (likely Operations), Whitehaven Coal: Yeah. No. What you say there is correct, Paul, but the team did a good job to reschedule and reprioritize. So we’re still targeting the 80 or 90 odd chocks. Some of the initial ones have already gone and they’ve returned and all the key components are out from underground.

So yes, we’re well on track.

Jonathan Sharpe, Analyst, CLSA: Okay. Thanks and congratulations again.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Daniel Roden with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Good day. Thanks, Paul and Kevin for taking my question. Just wanted to, I guess, just get some more color on maybe some ongoing weather impacts at some of the operations like, I guess, specifically Blackwater, are you seeing blasted inventory levels? I know the comments on so there’s still a focus, but just maybe seeing blasted inventory levels, it’s still a healthy points? Or has it backtracked a little bit?

And is that going to still be a bit of a grind over the next few quarters?

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Yes. Thanks, Daniel. Look, a couple of comments, then I’ll hand it to Ian to add some more. Look, I think look, I was very pleased with the team in terms of how they prepped for all that weather and managed themselves through that period. Production, we were at the first half year, as you probably saw, we were certainly tracking well ahead of where we wanted to be when we turned the corner into the second half of the year.

We’ve had a little bit of that back because of weather related impacts. There’s no doubt about that. But we’re still firmly, as we say, in the top half of our guidance, which is a nice place to be. I did reference it before, just the blasted inventory getting that done because we did inherit a lot of drilled ground which hadn’t been blasted. So we thought we’d better get onto that quickly and take advantage of that ahead of any rain coming.

And so the team mobilized really well and did that. But because we have been producing a little better than what they historically have been doing, we have been chewing up the pre strip. And whilst we have added more capacity into the pre strip fleet to be able to get on top of this deficit, we are chasing them down, which is a high quality problem. So so there’s a bit of that. But Ian might talk to you about some of the flexibility we’ve got on-site to be able to manage the impacts of weather as well.

Ian, Executive (likely Operations), Whitehaven Coal: Yeah. I think so. Just building on that, we’ve obviously got sprint capacity with our exposures provider and other providers that we use that we have turned on before. So and the same with the drilling and having some flex there. So as it starts to dry out, we’ll just work through what we need to do there.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. And I might actually ask partially follow-up, but more just on the marketing side of things like you’re seeing, I guess, missile files in Queensland’s volumes and access to labor? Like, are are you seeing any changes on that front that are, you know, making, you know, your, I guess, operations and and ability to access resources more competitive?

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Daniel, I think on the labor side of things, things that things have improved in in a number of ways. Certainly, of labor, I think, has improved. That’s that’s positive. It looks like expectations in terms of wage negotiations may also have moderated some of the the high water mark type requests that we were seeing maybe twelve months ago. So that looks like that may have turned a corner, which would be positive.

So we are we are and as a company, we are we’ve obviously changed scale significantly, and our presence in Queensland, obviously, is is greater than 17. So reputationally, the company is attracting more talent, which is good. So we are finding ourselves in in a fortunate position where we are getting more high quality people wanting to have a look at coming to work for Whitehaven. So that is giving us options in terms of how we manage ourselves. But I think the the other thing to note is that during this period of soft markets, it’s not just us.

Everybody is looking at other ways to actually do more with less. And so that is that is putting more people back into the employment pool, which we’re able to then choose from, which is good. So, yeah, look, I think that part of things has improved, which is a positive thing for us to see.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. And I might take one more in, but just maybe for Kevin, just on the balance sheet. Just you’re able to provide a bit of commentary, I guess, on the what or just a reminder on what the one off underlying payments were in the quarter. So obviously, we’ve got the $1,080,000,000 of proceeds. There’s a $9,300,000 buyback, dividends, fees on on considerations and due payments in in January.

Can you just give us a reminder on on those one offs, please?

Kevin, CFO, Whitehaven Coal: Well, I I think you’ve nailed them. It’s 363,000,000. Yeah. You have the stamp duty payment in in very early January. You had the dividend payment in March.

’70 ’2. ’70 ’2 million in that. We’ve spent some money on a buyback for about eight or nine, and then we’ve we’ve received the proceeds on the sale, which was about 1,080,000,000.00 US, which translated about $1.71.0.77, I think. And then on the April 2, we paid BHP the first five hundred million five hundred million dollars. So there’s been quite a lot of movements through the cash in that period, and it’s it’s been balance sheet remains in, you know, rude health, would be the way I’d say it.

So we are focused on on costs and productivity improvement and maintaining that balance sheet, Dan.

Daniel Roden, Analyst, Jefferies: Yes. Perfect. Thanks, guys. I appreciate your answers.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Rob Stein with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Rob Stein, Analyst, Macquarie: Hi, Paul and Kevin. Thanks for the opportunity. Just asking a question on the Queensland thermal coal mix notably up to 5%. Just a quick one, is that due to optimization issues at the mine? Is it due to wet weather impacts and contingent planning?

Or is it something that we’re to continue to expect to see? Is it just a one off? Thank you.

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Yeah. Thanks, Rob. Look, I wouldn’t draw too much attention to it. You can see in previous quarters, it’s relatively low compared to this one. It’s low anyway, 5%.

But it’s relatively low. It’s just a timing related matter. I mean, you’ve got we’re producing little bits of this around the place anyway, and and so we just accumulate it. And then when it gets big enough, we move it. And so it that’s a little lumpy in terms of its profile sales quarter to quarter.

But, yes, that’s the only thing to comment on. It’s really around the edges, this one.

Rob Stein, Analyst, Macquarie: Okay. Perfect. And that was it for now. Thank you.

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Thanks, Rob.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Young with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Paul Young, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Thanks. Good morning, Paul. Good morning, Kevin. Hope you’re both well. Paul, a question on CapEx and just broader sort of budgeting in light of the fact that coal prices have come down a fair way.

They’re still pretty good though, but costs across the industry have obviously stepped up, we’re seeing some tailwinds in costs now. But as far as just planning for uncertainty and potentially lower coal price environment going forward. What flexibility do you have on cost, but particularly CapEx? I know you’re tracking at the bottom end of the guidance range for this fiscal year. And I know you’re rephasing Narrabri expansion to use the current longwall.

So a couple of examples there. But just going forward, things get a little bit tougher in met coal, it does drop further considering the supply is sticky as always is in down cycles, and I expect all the Queensland operators, including yourselves to put the hammer down or push volumes harder in the over the dry months. What flexibility do you have on CapEx, whether it be existing projects or looking at project studies and growth? Thanks.

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Yes. Thanks, Paul. Yes, look, you’ve answered the question for me on a couple of examples there. Narrabri certainly rephased will be lower. And as I said, our apologies for that, we didn’t intend to get this out this quarter.

But the backdrop of pricing gave us an opportunity to have another good look at And because we have our good joint venture partners in tow, that all needs to make sure we go through them and give that proper ventilation there before we publish it. So that will be much lower and phased in a different way, as you say, to take advantage of using this wall for longer. In terms of the rest of the business, we’re looking critically at all of those things. As you say, we’re tracking at the lower end of our guidance anyway, but we are critically looking at that. So that doesn’t mean you can spend the difference between where we’re currently at today to the bottom end of guidance in this last two months just because that’s where we are.

We’re looking very critically at all that stuff. In terms of Queensland, Queensland you know, has has some capital needs, no doubt about that, but we’ve already put some capital into Blackwater in particular. The majority of things up there in Queensland are really there are some there are some end of life type scenarios that we need to work our way through. There’s a few rebuilds that need to be conducted, whether it be on the shovel or a dragline for next year and the year after. And there’s and there’s the obvious maintenance, you know, where we’re replacing engines and so on.

So there’s all of that is up for grabs. We would like to see, you know, people use their gear for longer. And so that is part of the cultural change that we’re bringing about with the integration of of the new business in Queensland. So historically, they they hadn’t run their gear as long as what we would do at Whitehaven, so there’s a transition there and a benefit, if you like, of pushing that out further. So we are scrutinizing all of that.

So we do have actually quite a bit of flexibility because we just said to the team in budgeting for this new year, show us show us what the baseline is, that is what the asset scenario before we start metering out capital. And there’s lots of different contingency planning going on in the business to make sure that we can deal with all the things we need to deal with over this next twelve months. And of course, just because we do have a healthy bank balance doesn’t mean it can be spent. And so fact, our commitment is not to touch any of that because that is already spoken for in terms of the commitments we have going forward. So, okay, we’ve got flexibility, that’s great, but we wanna we wanna make sure that we deliver CapEx guidance at the full year, which is consistent with the times we’re in.

Paul Young, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Yes. Understood, Paul. And then maybe just on white stripping. I know you’re well positioned on the cost curve across both your thermal assets and met coal assets or maybe the margin curve is a bit better looking at it. So is there any sort of re jigging your mine plans internally?

You guys don’t have to do that. Guess that’s the point I’m saying. But is there any sort of any thought around potentially high grading or changing the mine plan to maximize cash flow? Or you think you can just plow through on the current plan as it is based on your position on cost curve?

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Yeah. We think we need to get our cost position lower, Paul. So I know when we have these calls, a few of our employees dial into these things as well. So thank you for the compliment in terms of our cost positioning, but we want to drive that lower. And we think we can.

Productivity is the key to doing that. And we are not going to resort to any short termism in terms of changing mine plans to deal with that. That always remains a lever you have your sleeve. But we know that everyone pays a longer term price for that. We don’t feel we need to do that.

The mines are running well, and we just need to drive more with what we’ve got. And so that’s our focus for productivity, all the sites.

Paul Young, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Yes. Okay. Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Kevin.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Chen Zhang with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Chen Zhang, Analyst, Bank of America: Good morning, Paul and Kevin. Congrats on a strong quarter despite the weather impact. Just a follow-up on the capital allocation and the sequencing of different projects. By looking at the bakery, it’s progressing very well. Round co production this quarter, point 5,000,000 tons.

But I’m just wondering what is the long term plan for bakery? And are you happy for bakery just to produce at base level over the next three or four years? Thank you.

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Yeah. Thanks, Chin. That’s a good question. Vicry is going well. We’re looking at exactly what the optimal scenarios would be for that.

Now that is on the basis of the small Vicry. We have no immediate plans to deploy any capital in the full victory scenario. So I don’t think that’s the right time to be looking at that. So just to confirm that that’s that’s not being considered. So how do we optimize exactly the footprint we’ve got and and use, you know, what existing capacity is there to soak up a bit more take or pay, say, for instance?

And and so that’s certainly our focus. It can go when we initially when we initially sanctioned this, it could go five years at this level without without more capital. So we’re into the second year. And so we’ve got three more years that can run at this level before we need to do something different. So that gives us the flexibility to consider what the right way to address the investment in Vickery is.

So there’s no immediate pressures on us. But it is going well and but we’ve not forgotten about Vickery. Vickery, at some point, put that question to the board. At this pricing environment, now is not the time to do that.

Chen Zhang, Analyst, Bank of America: Sure, sure. That makes sense. That makes sense. Thank you very much, Paul. I’ll pass it on.

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Thanks, Chip.

Conference Operator: Thank you. That concludes our question and answer session. I’ll now hand back to Mr. Flynn for closing remarks.

Paul Flynn, CEO/Managing Director, Whitehaven Coal: Thanks, everybody, for dialing in. Really appreciate it. And I know everybody needs to get to their next calls and so on. If you have any questions that we didn’t get to address today, please know where to contact us. Happy to engage and walk you through whatever outstanding matters you may have.

Thanks very much. See you soon.

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