METC

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. ET Chief Financial Officer - Jeremy Sussman Chairman and CEO - Randall Atkins EVP of Critical Mineral Operations - Mike Woloschuk SVP of Critical Mineral Sales - Oren Atkins EVP for Mine Planning and Development - Chris Blanchard Chief Commercial Officer of met coal - Jason Fannin Operator: Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Ramaco Resources Second Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the floor over to Jeremy Sussman, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead. Jeremy Sussman: Thank you. On behalf of Ramaco Resources, I'd like to welcome all of you to our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. With me this morning is Randy Atkins, our Chairman and CEO; Mike Woloschuk, our EVP of Critical Mineral Operations; Oren Atkins, our SVP of Critical Mineral Sales; Chris Blanchard, our EVP for Mine Planning and Development; and Jason Fannin, our Chief Commercial Officer of met coal. Before we start, I'd like to share our normal cautionary statement. Certain items discussed on today's call constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements represent Ramaco's expectations concerning future events. These statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Ramaco's control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and except as required by law, Ramaco does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. I'd also like to remind you that you can find a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures that we plan to discuss today in our press release, which can be viewed on our website, www.ramacoresources.com. Lastly, I'd encourage everyone on this call to go onto our website and download today's investor presentation. With that said, let me introduce our Chairman and CEO, Randy Atkins. Randall Atkins: Thanks, Jeremy, and thanks for everyone joining us this morning. We have a lot to discuss. First, turning to our critical mineral front, as you know, we released last week the long-awaited Hatch conceptual study, along with the shareholder letter, both of which are on our website. The overall Brook Mine project is transformative, both for Ramaco and for the country. It also represents the reality of developing, building and financing a major supply chain response to the chokehold on critical minerals that the Chinese have over the West. At Ramaco, we have been at this now for about six years. We believe we are more than halfway there before commercial production. The reality is that it will take several years for the U.S. to balance the playing field with the Chinese, who have been at it for more than three decades. As you know, we changed direction last fall to test the carbochlorination method to apply to our coal-based feedstock. We've now arrived at a method to processing raw ore. This moves us from being just an upstream feedstock provider to also a potential large-scale midstream refiner. The refinery is clearly the most expensive and largest project we have considered, but it also represents a unique long-term potential profit center and at a transformative scale. We are conservative in our fundamental approach to our commodity businesses, be they critical minerals or met coal. We will approach this project in the same way. In brief, now that we know both the "how to process" and also "what oxides," metals and MRECs we can potentially produce, going forward we will work to improve the refining techniques to make them financially stronger. We'll also focus to optimize both the refinery construction cost and the construction timing. On financing, we want to make sure that the subject is properly framed. The major capital disbursements for the refinery are still more than two years away, and we are approaching that runway deliberately to finance the project in as attractive as possible a manner for our shareholders. As we've said before, we have been in discussions with the government. Government financing support has been pending the completion of the independent third-party diligence. Also, procurement offtake counterparties, including relevant federal agencies, were also perfectly reasonably awaiting the Hatch study before advancing. With that Hatch report now in hand, we are positioned to move these discussions forward with both offtake and commercial financing counterparties. Basically, the door opened last week for us to now concretely pursue these discussions to some point of conclusion. I'm not going to repeat all of the metrics which we discussed in last week's letter, other than to highlight just a few of the milestones. We had Hatch look at the Brook project at two different levels of plant feed. One was at 1.8 million, and separately we had it at an elevated 3.5 million tons of feedstock. The higher case was in part motivated by supplying a larger level of feedstock production for domestic government supply chain needs. The project is and always has been very scalable in both directions. Our mine out here was originally permitted at 8 million tons of coal production, which we later scaled back to 2 million tons before it became a rare earth project. As I will touch on, we have generations of available feedstock in our deposit, so we can always increase production. If economics or timing so dictate, we can always also lower the tons mined and oxide produced to get started and then add more production later. So depending upon future demand and financing availability, we could increase or decrease production accordingly. The initial size of the facility will be dictated on Ramaco's efforts to de-risk the project, including offtake agreements and, of course, financing. If there is one hallmark about this company, it is that we call an audible at the line almost every day. Internal modeling for the Brook Mine using the capital and operating cost information from Hatch on the two alternative feedstocks showed a potential NPV of between roughly $3.4 billion to $8 billion and an average adjusted EBITDA of between $600 million to $1.3 billion. Both these figures are up substantially compared to Fluor's 2025 studies. And these figures, I would note, also do not reflect any potential uplift from inclusion of e-waste in the feedstock. As Hatch noted, the timeline and capital costs have been pushed out and increased compared to last year's Fluor report. So has the profitability. We will of course work to tighten and reduce timing and cost as we progress on the testing, optimization and engineering fronts. One pushback from last year's Fluor report was that we were overreliant on scandium production. Both Hatch's and our own analysis now show that roughly 75% of our potential revenue will be tied to key critical minerals whose main demand driver is the semiconductor industry. Our growth trajectory would then also be tied to several key markets, be they from data centers to AI. Indeed, at the projected levels of expected production, the Brook Mine could provide a multiple of all of the nation's demand for the strategic critical element gallium and its related products used in these industries. In terms of independent report milestones, we expect to publish a report on e-waste this fall and its use, followed by a new S-K 1300 compliant technical report summary by the end of the year. This will reflect the Hatch flow sheet and the benchmark scale test work now underway. That year-end filing will be followed by a full pre-feasibility study in the spring of 2027, which marks the next formal step in the de-risking of the project. As we always remind ourselves, fundamentally the Brook Mine project starts as a unique upstream geological opportunity. As we've said before, it's been called the nation's largest unconventional rare earth and critical mineral deposit. Even at the current permit levels, on roughly only one-third of the mine's total acreage, we should be able to operate the mine for generations. We are also working with independent testing labs to identify commercial levels of other critical minerals and rare earth elements within the deposit that we have not disclosed to date. If independent assays and tests confirm commercial size of deposits, we will include that in our future product mix. To date, we have internally discovered more than 50 such minerals and REEs in our deposit. And as Mike Woloschuk will discuss, construction on our pilot plant building remains on schedule for completion later this year, with full-scale operations expected to commence in '27. We will start moving various lab operations into the new facility this fall to accelerate our testing capability and timing. Now, I'd like to turn to our legacy metallurgical business. As you've already heard from some of our other public coal peers, we have continued to see market weakness across most U.S. coal qualities, but especially in the high-vol coals. Too much domestic production is chasing a limited export market at the moment. By contrast, the low-vol coals have shown continued relative strength. Reflecting this market reality, in June our Board approved capital for the $25 million development for the first two underground sections at our Maben complex. Capital will be deployed over the next 12 months, split evenly between this year and 2027. We anticipate by the end of '27 this two-section deep expansion at Maben is going to add about 600,000 tons of production at full capacity. These will be tons which can achieve cash margins roughly double the company's overall second quarter margins. Combined with our existing surface production at Maben, this will also translate into 1 million tons of annualized production by '27. We have the future potential to add two additional deep sections at Maben. This would increase our low-vol capacity by another 600,000 tons for a total of roughly 1.5 million tons of low-vol production from the Maben complex. And to complete our overall low-vol growth plans, we would combine Maben with our previously announced growth at Berwind. This includes adding 300,000 tons in '27 at the Berwind number three section. This would then take the three Berwind sections to 900,000 tons of annual production, with the optionality to add a fourth section for another 300,000 tons. When these four sections are added to Berwind's Laurel Fork mine, this creates another complex with a 1.5 million ton production slate. Berwind would then mirror the same future level of production as Maben. We would have a combined 3 million tons of annual low-vol production from both complexes. When added to the more than 3 million tons at Elk Creek and Knox Creek, this provides a balanced medium-term portfolio of over 6 million tons of total production up from our current level of roughly 4 million tons. Our investor slide shows this strategic objective of increasing low-vol to 50%, up from about 25% today. I would also like to commend our metallurgical operations team. Second quarter mine cost at $99 a ton represented the fourth consecutive quarter of sub-$100 cash costs. This was achieved despite diesel prices increasing quarterly by roughly 33% in the second quarter. Our costs remain in the first quartile of U.S. met coal cost curves. I'm going to finish with a mention of some of our balance sheet metrics. On our shareholder return and capital allocation strategy, we bought back a significant amount of stock for the first time this year. We have now repurchased more than 8% of our Class A shares for about $66 million. This reflects what we regard as a prudent use of liquidity, given what we perceive as a current undervaluation of our stock price. We also ended the quarter with record levels of over $400 million of liquidity after these share buybacks. Because we are so liquid, we additionally have the ability to now be holding about $100 million of stockpiled coal inventory as of June 30 to sell at a better pricing as market conditions improve. In summary, this has been a quarter with a number of positive moving pieces for us as we begin to roll out some transformative growth opportunities, both in our coal and critical mineral platforms. With that, I'd now like to turn the floor back to the rest of our team to discuss finances, operations and markets. And first I'm going to have Mike Woloschuk, who leads our critical mineral efforts, to provide some updates on our progress there. Michael Woloschuk: Thanks, Randy. We had a busy quarter with the main focus working with Hatch to complete the carbochlorination study. The results of this study demonstrate the exceptional potential for the Brook Mine project. I first want to start by outlining why we have adopted a carbochlorination flow sheet for the Brook deposit. Brook Mine hosts rare earths and other high-value critical minerals such as gallium, scandium and germanium. Some of these high-value critical minerals are hosted in carbonaceous kaolinite clays. Extraction of these critical minerals requires alteration of the kaolinite mineral structure. In the carbochlorination process, this alteration also generates additional revenue by converting small amounts of the volatile aluminum and silica chlorides into high purity alumina and high purity silica. The balance of these chlorides is used to regenerate most of the chlorine needed for the process, minimizing makeup chlorine quantities. The flow sheet is designed so that mineralized Brook coal feeds the carbochlorination process as both the source of critical minerals and the reducing agent. In other words, the coal is simultaneously plant feed and reagent. Non-rare earth critical minerals generate about 75% of the revenues from this flow sheet. This is directly related to the unconventional geology of this deposit, and why TREO grades alone are not a relevant measure of asset quality. Furthermore, we can ramp up production of HPA and HPS as the market demands, with only incremental capital to increase conversion of those chlorides to oxides. We do not have to increase the feed to the plant. Carbochlorination has been demonstrated commercially for more than 70 years. This process is not novel. We are adapting proven technology to this feed material because it fits with the geometallurgical response of the Brook Mine. Initial tests generated average extractions of over 90% for all targeted critical minerals and these were verified by third-party independent testing. Subsequent testing achieved even better extractions, but third-party laboratories continue to be a timing bottleneck. To significantly increase test volumes and reduce turnaround times, we have been building out our own analytical and metallurgical testing facility at site. Our analytical lab is now operational and we anticipate internal carbochlorination testing will commence this quarter. The internal test work will aim to optimize separation of the carbochlorination metal chlorides and the results will underpin the next phase of study and the pilot plant design. We have appointed an experienced laboratory manager to build out the team and lead the laboratory operations. As Randy mentioned, we are evaluating additional upside not included in the study results. We have identified trade-off studies focused on capital and operating cost improvements, and integration of e-waste to boost yields of the targeted critical minerals. And this was identified as an opportunity in the Hatch study. The thermodynamic behavior of gallium and germanium chlorides under planned operating conditions is well established. Both species are volatile and report efficiently to the off-gas, where they are captured in equipment already specified in the flow sheet. Co-processing a controlled e-waste fraction therefore requires no new reaction chemistry. Early estimates suggest small amounts of e-waste in the feed blend will significantly boost gallium and germanium production with minimal modification to the process. The Hatch team is now into initial design of the carbochlorination pilot plant, and they will be delivering a package to Zeton for detailed design this quarter. At the pilot plant site, excavation work, pilings and some of the foundations were completed in the quarter. In this quarter, we anticipate finalizing the balance of the deep foundations and the slab-on-grade foundation work. Building steel that will house the pilot and research equipment is anticipated to be completed in Q4. In Q2, we increased the number of drill rigs on site. At the end of the quarter, we've drilled 56 holes this year and have updated our infill drilling program to target a portion of the 4,500-acre permitted area to increase resource confidence level from inferred to indicated to support the pre-feasibility study. We've expanded our in-house geology logging and sampling capabilities and anticipate being able to conduct in-house assays on drill core this quarter. Non-Hatch scope being managed by WSP advanced several key technical activities, including development of the mine footprint, identifying a location for the tailings storage facility and a review of the borehole locations, material properties and geotechnical studies to support TSF site selection. I would now like to hand over the call to Oren Atkins, our SVP of Sales for Critical Minerals. Oren Atkins Thank you, Mike, and good morning. I'll provide a commercial update on our Brook Mine where our critical minerals commercial strategy continues to advance on a number of fronts. Alongside the technical work supporting the just released Hatch conceptual study, we have built out a dedicated internal marketing and sales team for the Brook Mine materials, further supported by an experienced team of industry consultants and lobbyists. With at least 20 different high-value basket materials facing into a myriad of industry supply chains, outreach and visibility has been a high priority. To that end, the team has executed over 30 NDAs related to potential offtake and technical engagement and is in offtake discussions with counterparties for every material to be produced at the Brook facility. With established relationships across the downstream supply chains, we expect commercial advancement to run parallel to our technical development read a Hatch report, with additional MOUs to be announced in the near future. It's also relevant to highlight that the Brook Mine critical mineral deposit was discovered in partnership with the U.S. government. Ramaco continues to build and enhance relationships with various departments of government to support their strategic initiatives to onshore Western critical mineral supply chains. A number of our materials have defense applications which have been subject to export restrictions, so we are in regular communication with the Department of War to align ourselves with their supply chains and needs. As Mike mentioned, the carbochlorination process is projected to extract higher yields of high purity gallium, germanium and silica products. We're excited about the fact that the key demand drivers for our products are in the semiconductor, technology and defense industries. Demand is high for these products, as Brook may be the world's first gallium primary source mine developed at a time where it has been three years since China has exported gallium to North America. We are in active discussions with potential off-takers, ranging from large gallium purification and distribution companies to wafer, power device and RF manufacturers. The carbochlorination process also creates valuable HPA and HPS from what was previously gangue material. While HPA has multiple applications across substrate, semiconductor, ceramics, demand is growing most rapidly for use in batteries. Ramaco is in contact with technology and battery firms, both domestically and abroad, to place offtake of this material. High purity silica similarly faces into semiconductor and battery sectors, providing crossover of multiple value materials to potential off-take customers. In scandium, demand continues to grow for solid oxide fuel cells, and Brook is well positioned to provide domestic feedstocks into this growing industry. We are in discussion with a large firm in this field for both offtake and a circular arrangement of recycling spent fuel cell materials. Scandium also improves the strength-to-weight characteristics of metal alloys, and Brook's stable domestic supply could unlock the development of new alloys for defense, space, aerospace and auto applications. Ramaco has retained an industry consultant with years of experience developing scandium alloys, which has greatly accelerated our integration into these supply chains. And we are currently in discussion with two material developers working to standardize new aluminum and titanium alloys with identified end-use applications. On rare earths, our MREC has a combination of both light and heavy rare earths, making it a unique, valuable product in the marketplace. We are under NDA and in discussion with a number of separation companies, both domestically and abroad in allied nations, and our primary focus is to ensure the technical fit of these facilities to separate each of our rare earth oxides or each of our rare earths into saleable oxides. We announced an MOU with RE Alloys for offtake and separation of MREC and are in discussion with a number of other firms to secure similar separation and offtake agreements. Lastly, I want to highlight that e-waste was identified as an opportunity in the Hatch conceptual study as the carbochlorination facility provides us with flexibility to integrate a number of these mineral-rich materials into our feedstock ore to boost critical mineral yields and production. We are in active discussions with not only e-waste providers to supply materials, but also offtake customers to create a circular arrangement of recycling spent materials or manufacturing waste. Two groups have already sent materials to our Brook facility for testing, so we are actively looking to advance the technical and economic feasibility of incorporating recycled materials into our carbochlorination facility. Now that the technical and economic information from the Hatch report has been made public, we anticipate things to accelerate regarding various supply agreements in the near future. With that, thank you for your time and I will pass along to Chris to speak to our operations. Christopher Blanchard: Thanks, Oren. I'd like to briefly move back to the East and discuss results for the metallurgical coal side of the business. First and foremost, I'm pleased to report and share that operational safety and compliance performance remained strong in the second quarter and much improved from our 2025 results. Quantitatively, we have had 58% fewer incidents in 2026 through the comparable period in 2025, and this is translated into a 54% reduction in our total reportable incident rate year-to-date. Mine turnover of personnel is also reduced substantially during this prolonged market weakness. Fewer vacancies and a more stable workforce has certainly contributed to better results on our safety metrics. On an operations front, we continue to maintain reasonably acceptable cash costs under $100 company-wide. This is despite the headwinds of stubbornly high fuel costs, which are one of our largest single direct costs, plus the added pass-throughs related to transportation and logistics. After entering the year at approximately $2.50 per gallon for diesel fuel, we averaged $4.64 per gallon in the second quarter with a peak at $5.71. Fortunately, we saw a pullback in late June and early July. Unfortunately, however, the restarted tension in the Middle East has now pushed current pricing of diesel to $4.71 at the beginning of this week and actually above the second quarter's average pricing. At our usage and production mix and levels, we see more than a $1 increase in our produced coal costs per dollar of diesel fuel. The impact of diesel fuel alone in the second quarter compared to the start of 2026 levels was approximately $3 per ton produced. Although we are pleased with the cash cost performance, we know it certainly would have been stronger absent some of these external factors. Our Elk Creek complex led to sub-$100 strong cash cost and productivity performance. The main Berwind mine also performed at or slightly better than our forecast during the second quarter on produced tons and cash costs. As Randy mentioned, we have layered in additional low-vol production from our Laurel Fork Pocahontas No. 3 mine, which feeds into the Berwind prep plant. The majority of ramp-up and restart costs are behind us and while the Laurel Fork mine performance has not yet matched the productivities of the Berwind mine, it does continue to improve month-over-month. As a reminder, Laurel Fork production is a bridge for labor and capital equipment until the third section of the Berwind mine is ready to be deployed. It does give us future optionality for additional low-volatile flex production if we wish to continue its operation. Regarding the Berwind mine ramp-up, construction activities for the ventilation projects continued throughout the second quarter. The intake shaft has been completely excavated and the concrete liner is 46% constructed and poured. Once the liner is complete, the new mine fan will be installed and mine ventilation adjusted and optimized for the third section. The shaft excavation ran approximately three weeks behind schedule, but we still anticipate the third section at Berwind being operational very early in the fourth quarter this year. At our Maben operations, we have a significant amount of activity underway now to grow our low-vol portfolio where we see much better supply-side dynamics and perhaps even some shortages of the best quality low-vol coals. We discussed in our last call that the Maben batch-weigh loadout project has moved forward and that work continues. We still maintain a scheduled fourth quarter startup for the rail loadout at Maben. The immediate impact of that will be roughly $20 per clean ton in transportation cost reduction for the Maben produced coal. And on a total company cash cost basis, the Maben loadout savings will lower overall cash costs by almost $2 per ton across the currently producing mines. We are accelerating capital originally planned for 2027 into 2026 to take advantage of the soon-to-be-activated Maben loadout and the superior quality low-vol reserves we hold at this complex. Field work has begun on the surface excavations and the installation for electrical infrastructure for our first mine, which is in the Beckley seam. This low sulfur, low ash, high CSR coal should complement our operating Sewell seam surface mine and highwall miner. All the necessary mining equipment for the first section has been procured or has been transferred from idle operations. We are forecasting first production in early '27 with the potential for some incremental tons late this year. The second underground low-vol section is expected to come online in the second half of '27. By the end of '27 we will have the potential to be producing over 1.1 million tons of incremental low-vol coal on an annualized basis above current levels. This is the combination of the third section at Berwind, two sections at Maben and the potential continuation of the Laurel Fork mine. Offsetting this growth in low-vol, we continue to see challenges on the oversupplied high-vol side. We have proactively idled one of our three Stonecoal sections at Elk Creek. We're using the labor and the idle equipment to enhance our workforce and to lower overall maintenance capital spending throughout the company. We forecast overall high-vol production decline year-on-year, but that the growth in low-vol will offset this, plus favorably rebalance our production portfolio in a positive direction. Over the next few months we should begin to see some clarity with regard to 2027 domestic pricing and may further adjust high-vol production accordingly. I'd like to now turn the call over to our Chief Commercial Officer, Jason Fannin, for discussion of the markets and their dynamics. Jason Fannin: Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'll discuss our Q2 sales results, provide an update on our 2026 met coal sales position and market outlook, and then spend a few minutes on the commercial strategy behind our low-vol growth plans. Starting with our second quarter results, our realized prices increased $2 per ton versus Q1 on the back of higher volumes of both domestic and PLV-linked shipments. Looking ahead to pricing in the third quarter, PLV-linked tons should represent about 22% of overall volumes versus roughly 15% in both Q1 and Q2. Turning to our overall 2026 sales position, at the start of the third quarter, we had secured commitments for 3.8 million tons, or about 97% of our production at the top end of revised guidance. Our fixed-price book for 2026 stands at 2.5 million tons at a blended price of $121 per ton. We have an additional 1.3 million export tons under index-linked arrangements for delivery in the back half of the year. Moving to our seaborne metallurgical coal market outlook, pricing in both the Pacific and Atlantic basins was roughly flat on average in Q2 versus Q1, although PLV gave back some of its value in July. However, to start Q3, we have seen the U.S. indices largely maintain their pricing levels, increasing in relativity against PLV. On the supply-demand side, global prime hard coking coal supply continues to decline. Australian exports remain well below historical levels amid limited capital investment, high royalty burdens and ongoing production interruptions. The safety-driven mine suspensions in China's Shaanxi province earlier in Q2 also removed meaningful coking coal supply from the Pacific market, much of it in low ash, low sulfur, high CSR qualities that are difficult to substitute. Taken together, we believe supply-side dynamics provide a reasonably firm floor near current PLV levels. This brings me to the commercial dimension of the low-vol strategy and Maben development plans that both Randy and Chris have already outlined. Since early Q2 2025, U.S. low-vol pricing has maintained a persistent and often substantial premium to U.S. high-vol indices. And from a marketing standpoint, Maben volumes have already successfully trialed into the domestic market this year, and we plan to continue to expand our trial volumes into additional North American mills during 2027. Similarly, interest from Asian steel producers in securing premium U.S. low-vol supply is strong. Our first seaborne trial cargo of Maben is scheduled to arrive in India later this week and will undergo industrial consumption later this month and into September. We are also in discussions to supply trial cargo of Maben into Northeast Asia during Q4. To wrap up the met coal side, we are now at the beginning of the domestic negotiating season. While we won't discuss specifics around those today, our focus remains on enhancing the value of our sales portfolio. With that, I'll now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Jeremy Sussman, for review and discussion of our financial metrics. Jeremy Sussman: Thank you, Jason. I'll start with our balance sheet and echo what Randy said. Since the beginning of this year, our strong liquidity position has allowed us to opportunistically repurchase $66 million worth of shares. This has effectively reduced our outstanding shares by roughly 8% or by almost 5 million shares to now less than 52 million shares outstanding. We still have remaining repurchase authorization. As Randy noted, we will continue to look at opportunistic share repurchases as a prudent use of capital dependent upon circumstances. I would note that we ended Q2 with one of the strongest balance sheets in the public met coal space with over $400 million in liquidity despite the large amount of share repurchases. In addition, as of June 30th, we had roughly 1 million tons of coal sitting in inventory, which will provide us with a meaningful working capital tailwind should markets improve throughout the year as we anticipate. As we look ahead, this strong balance sheet and cash position allows us the optionality to invest in both our coal and rare earth elements business at the same time. In terms of second quarter operational performance, mine cost results were again extremely solid in this challenging market with cash cost per ton sold of $99. This figure is especially impressive considering the impact of higher diesel costs. Second quarter cash margins of $17 per ton fell from $20 per ton in the same period of 2025. This was due to lower realized prices of $116 per ton, which fell 6% compared to $123 per ton in Q2 of 2025. As Jason discussed, U.S. high-vol markets remain weak. Despite Australian benchmark pricing improving more than $50 per ton year-on-year in Q2, U.S. high-vol indices declined roughly $10 per ton during that same timeframe. Frankly, we view this trend as unsustainable, given the level of losses we are seeing among higher-cost producers. Our Q2 production levels fell modestly from the same period as last year as we continue to exercise discipline on production of higher-cost operations in the face of challenging market conditions. As an example, we proactively idled one section at our high-vol Stonecoal mine at our Elk Creek complex. In terms of financial results, Q2 adjusted EBITDA was $6 million compared to $9 million in Q2 of 2025. Class A EPS showed a $0.26 loss in Q2 versus a $0.29 loss in the same period of last year. Looking forward, we are providing a number of guidance updates related to our strategic shift to grow low-vol metallurgical coal production to roughly 50% of our overall slate. Based on continued weakness in current market conditions, full-year 2026 production guidance is now 3.6 to 3.9 million tons, down from 3.7 to 4.1 million tons. Full-year 2026 sales guidance is being reduced accordingly to 4.0 to 4.3 million tons, down from 4.1 to 4.5 million tons. Despite lower production, we are maintaining the midpoint of our full-year 2026 cash cost per ton sold guidance at $96 to $99 per ton versus $95 to $100 per ton previously. We now expect full-year 2026 capital expenditures to be $92 to $97 million versus $85 to $90 million previously. The $7 million increase reflects spending this year on the Maben underground low-vol growth project that was recently approved by the Board. We are slightly adjusting other non-operational full-year 2026 guidance, which can be found in our detailed guidance tables. For the third quarter of 2026, we anticipate coal shipments of between 950,000 to 1.1 million tons with the ability to increase this figure depending upon market conditions. We also expect third quarter cash costs to trend towards the higher end of the full-year range on the back of continued elevated diesel costs related to the Iranian conflict. In summary, we are financially well positioned to move forward in multiple directions as we navigate the continued challenging met coal markets and strongly advance our emerging critical minerals business. With that, I would like to now turn the call back to the operator for the question-and-answer session of this call. Operator: And our first question today comes from Brian Lee from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question. Tyler Bissett This is Tyler Bissett on for Brian. Super helpful commentary on the met coal market, and looks like met coal pricing in the U.S. has declined a bit so far in 3Q, but has remained relatively stable. So curious how you're thinking about your realized price in the back half here. Is it fair to assume limited upside to your realized prices until that broader shift towards the low-vol market materializes? Jason Fannin: Yes, hi, Tyler. This is Jason. I'd say that's correct. As I mentioned, we've got about 1.3 million tons index-linked across a broad spectrum of indices in the back half, and, of course, the remainder of our committed tons being domestic at a fixed price. But, yes, I think that's a correct statement. They are, given where they're at today, until we see some movement upwards, at least in the U.S. indices, they are relatively flattish. Jeremy Sussman: Tyler, it's Jeremy. One thing I might add, you know, our guidance tables are as of June 30. Since then we've been able to layer in some incremental domestic tonnage, both, as you know, steel capacity utilization is running pretty high right now at multi-year highs, and at the same time we've seen a couple of suppliers fall down. So I do think that will help offset some of the weakness in the indices that we're seeing. Tyler Bissett And also appreciate all the color on the offtake discussions. Can you provide any more details on when we can expect to see some more meaningful MOU offtake announcements? Also curious how early customer feedback has been regarding the new timeline and flow sheet. And what needs to happen to turn these MOU agreements to more finalized and binding agreements, especially in relation to making a potential FID at some point. And just lastly, how concerned are customers regarding the upcoming expiration of the China rare earth export control suspension in November? Randall Atkins: Oren, you want to start on that, and then I'll add some remarks? Oren Atkins Yes, sure, to chop down some of those questions regarding sort of timing and MOUs. We expect to announce some of these as we progress towards the end of the year. So those would be with this year. As far as, you know, customers' response to our timing, I think everybody, ourselves included, would love to have all of these minerals on the market yesterday. But it is also understood that if you're building a large-scale refinery and working timelines to catch up China's 30 years ahead of us, that these things will take time. So the market is pretty understanding and they want to secure long-term domestic supplies. Regarding your question with the concerns around the Chinese export ban. I think it's pretty well established that, you know, export ban or no, that China has kind of showed their hand on their willingness to use rare earths as a geopolitical weapon. And for anybody that has a manufacturing process that needs stability, that they are not going to be a chosen partner. So outside of even discussions of stability supported by public arrangements, private companies are realizing that they need to step into that kind of stability as well and to look for domestic supplies. And I think also, I'll chime in on your question about the investment decision. So we are away from, far away from that point, I mean I think the typical engineering, critical path would tell you after the PFS study that would provide most of the engineering and final cost numbers that would put it on the table as to what it would look like from the standpoint of just CaPex, presumably OpEx as well. You know, as Oren touched on, obviously we're going to be lining up a number, hopefully lining up a number of procurement arrangements between now and then. And then I think, you know, depending upon how this thing looks from potential cash flow potential, we'll probably have different options we can consider, be they governmental or private in terms of the financing approach. As I said, with 75% margins at this point, without really, putting in any layering for enhancement from e-waste or other types of opportunities financially, at least on paper, it stands up as a pretty strong project. What you have to do between now and then is actually put some reality behind that, which comes from the standpoint of primarily procurement and optimization of all the engineering and construction costs. So that's -- I'd say if we were talking probably next summer, that would be a point that I think we would have a little bit more intelligent dialogue. Operator: Our next question comes from Matthew Key from Texas Capital. Please go ahead with your question. Matthew Key: I had a kind of a follow-up on the offtake -- kind of the offtake discussions. One of the major changes from the Hatch report was the addition of high purity alumina and silica to the product mix. I was wondering if you anticipate any challenges in securing offtake agreements for HPA or HPS, just given the size of the production, or should it be pretty similar to what you're going through with MREC and the other rare earth elements? Randall Atkins: I'll let Oren start, and then Mike can comment. Oren Atkins Yes. In short, I mean, this is a product that has demand across a number of sectors, so it is not dissimilar to the marketing efforts that we're making for our other products. And so, no, we do not expect it to be different in our discussions with offtake counterparties for HPA or HPS. Mike, you want to touch on anything further? Michael Woloschuk: Yes, look, I think the beauty of this flow sheet for this style of deposit is we have the ability to turn it up or down without changing what goes through the plant. You know, we're only producing about 5% of, as final products, HPA and HPS, and we're regenerating chlorine from the rest of it. So the aluminum chloride, we have the ability to produce more, or we can use it to recycle chlorine. So that gives us quite a bit of flexibility. Matthew Key: Got it. No, that's very helpful. And just to wrap up, I wanted to ask about the upside potential for e-waste. Could you maybe just help me understand the potential benefit there from a financial or operational impact? Randall Atkins: So I'll let Mike start on the operations side and maybe Jeremy touch a little bit on the financial side. So go ahead, Mike. Michael Woloschuk: Yes, I would say that e-waste recyclers are typically targeting precious metals and then they're left with a material that, you know, they're less interested in because it's more difficult to process. That's really the material we're targeting. High gallium, high germanium e-waste, we've done some analysis internally. Only small amounts of this material can make a significant difference in terms of the financials. So as Oren said, we're sourcing these materials so we can do some testing, assaying on it, better understand the quantities that are out there, what's the metallurgical response through our flow sheet, and then we hope to include this in future studies. Randall Atkins: Jeremy, go ahead. Jeremy Sussman: Yes, very good question. So I mean what I would say is we can't really give specifics at this point until we're a little bit further along the process, but we believe it will be very meaningful in terms of everything from NPV, IRR, payback, cash flows, margins, et cetera, to the point where we plan on certainly having an interim study out with e-waste economics certainly before the end of the year. We wouldn't do that if we didn't think it was material. Operator: Our next question comes from Alex Fuhrman from Lucid Capital Markets. Please go ahead with your question. Alex Fuhrman: I had some questions on the updated report that you put out last week, curious about what seems like a pretty significant shift in end markets now, about 75% of projected revenue from the Brook Mine is going to be tied to semiconductors and high-end chip making. Can you talk a little bit about how that came to be? Is that simply the result of the updated chlorinization process and just simply being able to better extract some of those metals like gallium and germanium? Is there a little bit of maybe a strategic shift in aligning with some of those high-end growth verticals that those minerals are going to be serving? Michael Woloschuk: Yes. I think what we learned as the project was developing and we were doing more geological, mineralogical analysis, metallurgical testing was we have a kaolinite clay that could potentially generate revenue in this flow sheet that we weren't capitalizing on the previous flow sheet. So as you alluded to, we're getting better recoveries with this flow sheet and when we're able to produce an expanded suite of products that are meaningful. So, we view this flow sheet as the right fit for this deposit because of its geology and mineralogy. And as mentioned, it's a proven technology in the titanium industry currently, but back in the 70s and 80s, there was pilot testing done on aluminum-type ores, and it was successful technically. But of course, they were targeting a one-commodity product, aluminum, which was lower price. With our basket and the increased materials that we can produce, that's why it makes a difference economically for us. Operator: Our next question comes from Jeff Grampp from Northland Capital Markets. Jeffrey Grampp: I was curious with respect to the timing of Brook, I think you guys hit on a couple of different times that you think the initial expectations for I think 2031 could prove a little conservative. I was hoping you guys could maybe elaborate on what some of the kind of early identified levers could be to accelerate some of that timing. Randall Atkins: Mike, go ahead. Michael Woloschuk: Yes, sure. I suppose what's changed from last year at this time is, the large power transformers have a long delivery time from two to four years. And we've got independent opinions on that from more than one engineering firm. And the reason for that is these things are highly customized, manufacturing capacity currently limited, and competition with AI data centers, renewable energy products. What that looks like in a year from now, perhaps it gets better, and I think that could be an opportunity. But that's the main driver of what's caused the schedule to push out is supply chain related to large power transformers. Jeffrey Grampp: Got it, understood. Thanks for that detail. For my follow-up, you guys have noted being active on the buyback front so far this year, stocks kind of below levels that you guys have executed at. Is that a relatively safe conclusion that we should expect you to continue to be active on the buyback and just in general, how comfortable are you guys leaning into that considering kind of capital spending needs of the existing business and Brook over the next couple of years? Randall Atkins: We kind of consider our spend in a pretty holistic fashion. The Board approved a $100 million buyback. We've spent about two-thirds of that. We remain with the optionality in dry powder to do more buybacks should we so choose. And of course, we've also announced that we wanted to layer in a little more of the more low-vol production, given where we saw the market. So that's about a $25 million spend. So I think we'll try to balance them as we go forward to see what works. Obviously, deploying capital for balance sheet purposes gives you one kind of payback, so to speak, and putting funding behind longer-term assets provides a runway for earnings capability out into the future. So we want to kind of try to balance both considerations and obviously not tip our hands beyond what we've said already about production. Operator: Our next question comes from Nick Giles from B. Riley. Please go ahead with your question. Nick Giles: I was just hoping to follow up on that last question and maybe zoom out. Ramaco's undergone an internal reorganization, but was curious for your latest thoughts on a potential separation of the rare earths business. I mean, when could something like this make sense? And how should investors think about the ultimate equity check that will contribute to the Brook Mine on a fully developed basis? Randall Atkins: I think, the way I would look at it, you've really asked two questions. One is the reorg. So, we've already telegraphed that we're kind of aligning ourselves so that we'll have different silos. One's obviously a met silo, one's potentially a critical mineral silo, which frankly might break down into two pieces. One would be refining and one would be mining and marketing, kind of mirroring again what we've got in the East. And the other silo would be sort of our royalty interests, which would include obviously the reserve assets in the East, the Brook Mine reserves out here and infrastructure assets. So that's kind of how we're aligning ourselves in terms of pulling the trigger on any of that, just as a normal capital market transaction sketch, you would probably want to execute on those when you have a little bit more risk mitigation to each silo, and obviously some revenue hopefully behind each one of those particular numbers. So that's kind of a gauzy answer to a question of when, but it's a fairly straightforward one in the sense that you know you don't want to separate things until they're ready to stand on their own. In terms of equity checks, I think it's going to be a question of how we actually break this financing down, which we've got, quite a ways to walk before we decide which direction makes the most sense. There are some opportunities to do things which don't require equity checks. Those are more sort of sovereign-oriented type financings. And there are things which would require equity checks, but how that equity comes in, be it in the form of procurement arrangements, perhaps with advance payments, other types of supplier arrangements, co-ventures, et cetera. We're a little ahead of ourselves on that one right now, at least on the private side. Nick Giles: No, I appreciate all that, Randy. Maybe just one of those items I think you're suggesting is obviously offtake. And so, in terms of definitive offtake agreements, do you think that those will require some sort of sampling from the pilot plant, or could we see something definitive before we kind of get those initial samples? Jeremy Sussman: Yes, I mean, look, I think in terms of offtake, I mean, we're having discussions as we speak. I mean, we will have MOUs out in the near term, and that is well before. And when I say near term, certainly over the coming weeks and months. So obviously that's well before samples from the pilot plant. You've seen many deals in the critical mineral space, based on some process that may or may not be successful multiple years out. And these deals are subject to obviously quality parameters, successful testing, et cetera. So, between now and, the time that the pilot plant is producing samples, we are confident that we'll be able to do significant work, whether it be offtake, financing, et cetera, areas that we can de-risk this. And, of course, it will be subject to quality testing from the pilot plant, but that's just part of the normal course of business. Nick Giles: I understood. Thanks for that, Jeremy. And maybe just one more if I could. Just on your kind of low-vol output more broadly, obviously it's going to be growing here in the coming quarters. Just what's your appetite to reserve some of that low-vol production or incremental low-vol production for the domestic markets versus preserving some for export? Jason Fannin: Yes, hey, this is Jason. Good question. As Chris mentioned in his remarks, it's Maben reserve, given both its geography and its geology, is a higher CSR type southern West Virginia low-vol that we've already seen travel extremely successfully into the domestic market here this year. I suspect there'll be strong demand for it for '27 as we get further along in discussions with the customers there. But certainly on the export side, it's got value as well. As I mentioned, we've got a trial that will be starting soon in India. There's a trial quantity that's been requested for Northeast Asia in Q4, and we've seen excellent CSR testing results on the coal as well, but on the export side, it's also an offset against our already existing NS platform on demurrage costs, on blending up qualities, things of that nature. So it's got a lot of positive aspects to it as it comes into our book. But I suspect, in a nutshell, it's going to play in both markets very well. And it just depends on where that final value lands, as we get further into discussions on next year and further along in discussions on additional trial cargoes overseas. Operator: Our next question comes from Nathan Martin from The Benchmark Company. Nathan Martin: Just following up on that domestic question, Jeremy, I think you mentioned adding some domestic tonnage for this year since quarter end. Should we expect that to be at similar pricing to the 138 you guys have now for your current commitments? And then how many domestic tons do you expect to ship in the back half of the year versus what you guys ship in the first? Jason Fannin: Hey, Nate, this is Jason. Yes, on the pricing side there, it's largely in line with what we already booked there. We're just rolling additional tons on to some existing contracts there with existing customers for this year. Again, as Jeremy mentioned, just to pick up some slack from some of these other operations that have either fallen away or continue to struggle. So in the back-end, it'll be incrementally up, to be a higher proportion, as Jeremy mentioned earlier also, of our sales in the back half, tonnage-wise? Jeremy Sussman: Yes, so on that front, I mean, based on the 1.1 million tons in the guidance tables, it would have been about pro rata, I'll call it about 550,000 domestic tons shipped in the first half of the year, pretty evenly split Q1 and Q2. But as we said, we've been able to layer on some additional tons, so, it'll be up, 100,000 plus, give or take. And obviously we'll update the guidance tables next quarter. Nathan Martin: All right. Very helpful, guys. Appreciate that. And then coming to the cost side of the met coal business, Chris, I think you said that diesel expense or higher diesel expense added roughly $3 a ton versus your original expectation, maybe. First, just to confirm that, and then you also mentioned with the rail loadout expected to open at Maben, I think in the fourth quarter, that should reduce overall operations cost per ton by about $2 versus current operations. Again, confirm those are correct. And then just as we think about how that could apply to 2027, again, you guys have done a good job offsetting those diesel costs this year, maintaining full-year cost per ton guidance. Is it reasonable to assume then in '27, cost per ton should come down? Just kind of doing the math maybe to the mid-90s. Jeremy Sussman: Want to address the first part, I'll go through the second part about 2027. Chris? Christopher Blanchard: Yes, yes. So I was trying to figure which part of that question to tackle first, but your math is, your verification on the math is about right. So, so far this year through seven months the increased cost of diesel fuel both as a direct purchase and as the, sort of diesel fuel escalators on trucking and rails has increased our costs by about $3 a clean ton from where we would have been had diesel stayed flat year-on-year. So we're roughly $1, a little over $1 all in per dollar of diesel fuel cost increase or decline. So, as we see the rack price go up or down, you can do the math on what that impact is. And then, you might have to do a little bit of rounding on the Maben loadout, but essentially if you've got a little over 300,000 tons of annual production currently at Maben and you're saving $20 a ton on that in our total 4.1 book of sales, there's a little rounding there but that's how you get to a weighted average reduction of it's a little less than $2 that rounds up to $2 a ton. Jeremy Sussman: Yes, so to tackle '27, it's a good question. I don't think we're ready to give formal guidance at this point but I guess the way I think about it is, if you normalize diesel we're running about in the mid-90s right now. When the rail loadout at Maben comes online, you're right, that basically saves another buck or two a ton company-wide. But obviously we're layering in low-vol tons next year, which I would say cost-wise are slightly above kind of our current costs. But as Randy noted, from a margin perspective, if we were selling spot today from those incremental tons, it'd be about double what we're getting. So, obviously some puts and takes next year, but I mean, I think, at least conceptually you're thinking about the view conceptually, correct? Operator: And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be concluding today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference call back over to Chairman and CEO. Randall Atkins: Well, again, I appreciate everybody being on the call today, and we will look forward to updating people as we move forward. Thanks very much. Operator: And with that, we'll conclude today's conference call and presentation. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines. 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This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Ramaco Resources (METC) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Interested in Ramaco Resources, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Second-quarter performance weakened: Adjusted EBITDA fell to $6 million from $9 million year over year as realized coal prices and cash margins declined. Ramaco cut its 2026 production and sales guidance while maintaining its cash-cost outlook and raising capital-expenditure guidance to $92 million–$97 million. Ramaco is accelerating its shift toward low-volatility coal: The company approved $25 million for two Maben underground sections, expects the Maben rail loadout to begin operating in the fourth quarter, and plans to expand low-vol production to about 50% of its output. The Brook Mine critical-minerals project is advancing: Ramaco’s conceptual study estimates potential net present value of $3.4 billion–$8 billion, while pilot testing is planned for 2027. The company also repurchased $66 million of stock during the year, reducing shares outstanding by roughly 8%. These 3 Rare Earth Stocks Are Surging Alongside MP Materials Ramaco Resources (NASDAQ:METC) reported second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $6 million, down from $9 million a year earlier, as lower metallurgical coal prices pressured margins despite continued cost control and a stronger liquidity position. Class A earnings per share showed a loss of $0.26 for the quarter, compared with a $0.29 loss in the second quarter of 2025. Realized coal pricing was $116 per ton, down 6% from $123 per ton a year earlier, while cash margins declined to $17 per ton from $20 per ton. → SpaceX’s First Earnings Report Could Decide Whether Shorts or Bulls Have Control Ramaco Resources Pins Hopes on Coal's Untapped Potential Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Sussman said cash cost per ton sold was $99, marking another quarter below $100 per ton despite higher diesel costs. The company ended the quarter with more than $400 million in liquidity and approximately 1 million tons of coal inventory. Ramaco lowered its full-year 2026 production outlook to 3.6 million to 3.9 million tons, from prior guidance of 3.7 million to 4.1 million tons. Sales guidance was reduced to 4 million to 4.3 million tons, from 4.1 million to 4.5 million tons previously. → 3 Drone Stocks That Should Soar After the Summer Slump The company maintained its midpoint cash-cost outlook, now forecasting full-year cash costs of $96 to $99 per ton sold, compared with prior guidance of $95 to $100 per ton. Capital-expenditure guidance increased to $92 million to $97 million from $85 million to $90 million, reflecting spending on its Maben underground low-volatility metallurgical coal project. For the third quarter, Ramaco expects coal shipments of 950,000 to 1.1 million tons. Sussman said third-quarter cash costs are expected to trend toward the high end of the full-year range because of elevated diesel prices. → The Bitcoin Comeback May Already Be Underway—2 ETFs for Exposure Chief Commercial Officer Jason Fannin said the company had secured commitments for 3.8 million tons, or about 97% of production at the top end of its revised guidance, entering the third quarter. Its 2026 fixed-price book totaled 2.5 million tons at a blended price of $121 per ton, supplemented by 1.3 million export tons under index-linked arrangements for the second half. Fannin said U.S. high-volatility metallurgical coal markets remained weak, while low-volatility coal has continued to command a premium. Ramaco idled one of three Stonecoal sections at its Elk Creek complex in response to high-vol market conditions. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Randy Atkins said Ramaco is accelerating its strategy to increase low-vol coal to approximately 50% of its production slate, from roughly 25% currently. The board approved $25 million for development of the first two underground sections at the Maben Complex. The capital will be deployed over the next 12 months, split between 2026 and 2027. Ramaco expects the two sections to add about 600,000 tons of annual production at full capacity by the end of 2027. The company also expects its Maben rail loadout project to begin operating during the fourth quarter. Chris Blanchard, executive vice president of mine planning and development, said the loadout is expected to reduce transportation costs for Maben coal by approximately $20 per clean ton and lower companywide cash costs by nearly $2 per ton across current producing mines. Ramaco expects its third Berwind section to be operational early in the fourth quarter of 2026 and plans to add 300,000 tons of Berwind production in 2027. Including potential additions at Maben and Berwind, the company outlined a path toward more than 6 million tons of total annual production over the medium term, compared with roughly 4 million tons currently. The company said its first seaborne trial cargo of Maben coal was scheduled to arrive in India during the week of the call, with industrial consumption planned later in the month and into September. It is also discussing a trial cargo for Northeast Asia during the fourth quarter. Ramaco also highlighted a recently released Hatch conceptual study for its Brook Mine critical minerals project in Wyoming. Atkins said the company adopted a carbochlorination processing approach that could move the project beyond an upstream feedstock model into potential large-scale refining. Based on internal modeling using Hatch capital and operating-cost information, Ramaco estimated a potential net present value of approximately $3.4 billion to $8 billion and average adjusted EBITDA of $600 million to $1.3 billion, depending on whether the facility processes 1.8 million or 3.5 million tons of feedstock. Atkins said those figures exclude any potential contribution from electronic-waste processing. Management said approximately 75% of potential Brook Mine revenue would be tied to critical minerals with demand drivers in semiconductor-related industries, including gallium and germanium. Mike Woloschuk, executive vice president of critical mineral operations, said initial third-party-verified testing produced average extraction rates above 90% for targeted critical minerals. Ramaco expects its analytical laboratory to begin internal carbochlorination testing during the current quarter. The company said the pilot plant building remains on schedule for completion later in 2026, with full-scale pilot operations expected to begin in 2027. Ramaco expects an e-waste report during the fall. A new S-K 1300-compliant technical report summary is planned by the end of 2026. The company expects to complete a full pre-feasibility study in spring 2027. Orin Atkins, senior vice president of critical mineral sales, said Ramaco had signed more than 30 nondisclosure agreements related to potential offtake and technical engagement. The company is in discussions with counterparties for each material expected to be produced at Brook and anticipates announcing additional memorandums of understanding before year-end. On capital allocation, Ramaco repurchased $66 million of stock during the year, reducing Class A shares outstanding by roughly 8%, or nearly 5 million shares, to fewer than 52 million shares. The board has authorized a total $100 million repurchase program, according to management. Ramaco Resources, Inc (NASDAQ:METC) is a U.S.-based producer of premium metallurgical coal and industrial minerals, focused on supplying the steel and allied industries. The company’s operations are centered in the Appalachian region of West Virginia, where it develops, mines and processes high-carbon coal products designed to meet the quality requirements of blast‐furnace and electric‐arc furnace steelmakers. The firm’s flagship asset is the Elk Creek underground mine in Wyoming County, West Virginia, which began commercial production in 2019 and delivers a range of high‐grade metallurgical and anthracite coals. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Ramaco Resources Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

LEXINGTON, KY., Aug. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ramaco Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: METC, METCB, "Ramaco" or the "Company") is a leading operator and developer of high-quality, low-cost metallurgical coal in Central Appalachia and is exploring a coal, rare earth, and other critical minerals project in Wyoming. Today it reported financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026 (the "Results"). SECOND QUARTER 2026 HIGHLIGHTS The Company had a quarterly net loss of $(15.4) million and Class A diluted EPS of $(0.26). The Company had quarterly Adjusted EBITDA of $5.7 million, defined as adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, equity-based compensation, and, when applicable, certain other non-operating and expense items that are non-recurring and not related to the underlying business performance, a non-GAAP measure ("Adjusted EBITDA"). See "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures" below. During the second quarter, the Company repurchased 3.5 million Class A common shares in the open market at an average price of $14.41 per share, spending approximately $51 million. Year to date, the Company has repurchased nearly 4.6 million Class A common shares at an average price of $14.44, spending almost $66 million. These repurchases represent over 8% of the Class A common shares outstanding. At these price levels, we believe share repurchases represent a prudent use of our capital. The Company ended the second quarter with liquidity of $400.1 million, an increase of nearly 360% year over year. The Company's balance sheet remains among the strongest in its history. In its core metallurgical coal business, the Company had quarterly non-GAAP cash mine cost per ton sold of $99, which was $4 lower than the second quarter of 2025. (See "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures" below.) This represented the fourth consecutive sub-$100 per ton cash cost quarter. The Company's cash costs remain in the first quartile of the U.S. metallurgical coal cost curve. In June, the Company's Board of Directors ("Board") approved a $25 million development project for the first two underground sections at our Maben Complex, with spending planned over the next 12 months. Given strong low-vol market conditions, we anticipate this will add 0.6 million premium low-vol tons of production at full capacity, at cash margins roughly double the Company's overall second quarter margins. MARKET COMMENTARY / 2026 OUTLOOK Rare Earths and Critical Minerals: As Ramaco continues its transition into a dual platform company, it released an independent conceptual study prepared by Hatch Associates Consultants, Inc. ("Hatch") on July 29, 2026. The Hatch report provides a preliminary process definition to assess the financial viability of the Brook Mine critical mineral and rare earth project (the "Brook Project"). This report superseded an earlier July 2025 conceptual report prepared by Fluor Corp. Internal modeling using the financial information on capital and operating costs from Hatch shows a potential net present value (NPV) of $8 billion for the Brook Mine and average annual adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 billion. These figures represent a material increase in the potential financial metrics for the Brook Project relative to the Fluor report. The Hatch report preliminarily estimated the capital for construction of the project at $3.2 billion, with an additional contingency of ~$0.8 billion. The report further estimated timing for initial production to be in 2031. As the Brook Project evolves, we anticipate that further testing and engineering optimization will be deployed to compress the current estimated projected capital and timing. As Hatch moves forward with a subsequent Preliminary Feasibility Study next year, we expect an interim study of revised economics by year-end 2026. We are also exploring various enhancements to the Brook Project such as the potential upside from blending e-waste and PVC into our carbonaceous feedstock as well as including other critical mineral elements in our product mix which have not been reported to date. The Hatch report will be followed by a Technical Report Summary ("TRS") for the Initial Assessment of the Brook Project, which will be focused on geological matters. We remain in advanced discussions regarding potential domestic and international offtake transactions and non-dilutive third-party project financing involving public and private sectors. The pilot plant's building structure continues to be constructed in Wyoming, with completion of the building structure expected in the fall of 2026. The interior equipment and testing facilities are being fabricated at the Zeton, Inc. facility in Canada. That fabrication will also begin in the fall, with full-scale pilot operations expected to commence in 2027. Metallurgical Coal Sales, Marketing and Growth Projects: As of June 30, sales commitments for 2026 totaled 3.8 million tons, equal to slightly more than 100% of 2026 production guidance at the midpoint of 3.75 million tons. Of this total, 1.1 million tons are committed to North American customers at an average realized fixed price of $138 per ton, and an additional 1.4 million tons are committed to seaborne customers at an average fixed price of $108 per ton. In total, 2.5 million tons are committed at an average fixed price of $121 per ton. A further 1.3 million export tons are committed to seaborne customers at index-linked pricing and are not yet priced. U.S. low-vol and high-vol indices were flat in the second quarter of 2026 versus the first quarter of 2026. Current spot prices are marginally below second quarter averages. U.S. low-vol indices currently sit roughly $40 per ton higher than U.S. high-vol averages, with strength in the U.S. low-vol market coinciding with relative strength in the Australian premium low-vol market. Reflecting low-vol strength, we announced the initiation of the first two underground sections at our Maben low-vol Complex. In addition, at our Berwind Complex the Laurel Fork Mine has restarted, and we also anticipate the third section at our Berwind Mine to be operational this September. At full production, these projects are expected to add approximately 100,000-200,000 tons in 2026 and subsequently more than 1 million annualized tons of low-vol production as these new mines are developed. Construction of a new rail loadout at our low-vol Maben Complex remains on track for completion in the fourth quarter. This loadout is anticipated to reduce current trucking costs by roughly $20 per ton at this complex. Metallurgical Coal Guidance: The Company is providing guidance updates related to its strategic shift to grow low-vol metallurgical coal production to roughly 50% of its overall slate. Based on continued weakness in high-vol market conditions, full-year 2026 production guidance is now 3.6 – 3.9 million tons, down from 3.7 – 4.1 million tons. Despite strong first-quartile cash costs, the Company is proactively idling one section at its high-vol Stonecoal Mine at its Elk Creek Complex due to weak high-vol market conditions. Full-year 2026 sales guidance is being reduced accordingly to 4.0 – 4.3 million tons, from 4.1 – 4.5 million tons. The Company is maintaining the midpoint of its full-year 2026 cash cost per ton sold guidance, at $96 - $99 per ton versus $95 - $100 per ton previously despite projected lower production. We expect third-quarter cash costs to trend toward the higher end of the full-year range on the back of continued elevated fuel costs related to the Iranian conflict. The Company now expects full-year 2026 capital expenditures to be $92 - $97 million versus $85 - $90 million previously. The increase reflects capital spending on the aforementioned Maben underground low-vol growth project. We expect coal shipments of between 950,000 and 1,100,000 tons for the third quarter of 2026, with the ability to increase shipments depending on market conditions. The Company is adjusting other non-operational full-year 2026 guidance items, which can be found in our detailed guidance tables. MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY Randall Atkins, Ramaco Resources' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "As we continue to adjust our operations and corporate structure toward a dual platform model, we achieved a number of meaningful milestones over the past few months and indeed over the past week. First, on our critical mineral front, we recently released the long-awaited Hatch conceptual study along with an accompanying Shareholder Letter describing the results of shifting the process method in the proposed refinery to a carbochlorination technique. Internal modeling using financial capital and operating cost information from Hatch shows a potential NPV of $8 billion and average annual adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 billion for the Brook Project. Preliminary capital cost for the refinery portion of the Brook Project and timing also increased as outlined in both the Report and my Shareholder Letter. The Hatch report validated our decision to pursue the new carbochlorination refining process. We intend to pursue various testing and engineering optimization to improve on project economics, timing and capital costs. On our core metallurgical coal business, despite continued market weakness we continued to deliver strong operational results, again achieving sub-$100 per ton cash mine costs for the fourth quarter in a row. We are also advancing our transformation to become a primarily low-vol metallurgical coal producer. We expect over the next few years that 50% or more of our output will be high-quality low-vol coal. Lastly, to date this year we have repurchased more than 8% of our Class A shares, for almost $66 million. This reflects what we regard as a prudent use of liquidity given what we perceive as an undervaluation of our stock price at current levels. Last week, I released a Letter to Shareholders on the back of the finalization of the Hatch conceptual study. Importantly, the letter shows that roughly three quarters of our anticipated Brook Mine revenue will be tied to key critical mineral commodities whose main demand driver is the semiconductor industry. As a reflection of the projected growth trajectory of several key markets from data centers to AI, we view this as an important alignment of the Brook Mine with strong existing and dramatically expanding markets for our planned future oxide and metals product slate. We believe the economics of the Brook Project are strong. We hope they will be enhanced and strengthened as we methodically move forward. Initial reaction to my Letter has reflected the reality that development and construction of a complex carbo-chemical critical minerals refinery, even using known technology, involves both a long lead time and large amounts of capital. This project is a reflection of the supply chain dilemma that the United States currently faces. China has built upstream and midstream capacity over a 30+ year period. Even with U.S. Governmental encouragement and financial assistance to build the infrastructure necessary to solve this strategic long-term problem, it is not a quick fix. We intend to continue moving forward to help resolve this problem. We always remind ourselves that, fundamentally, the Brook Mine remains a unique upstream opportunity and is what we believe to be the largest unconventional deposit of rare earth elements and critical minerals discovered to date in the United States. Even at currently permitted levels, on roughly one-third of the mine's total acreage, we should be able to operate the mine for generations. This deposit contains what we now believe are some of the most valuable critical minerals and rare earths needed to solve the supply chain crisis. Indeed, it could supply feedstock capacity for critical mineral products which would address a large portion of both U.S. and foreign demand. On the midstream side, now that we have determined that carbochlorination is the optimal processing technique for refining and separating our coal-based feedstock, over the coming months we hope to provide additional independent analysis to improve on both economics and timing of the refinery portion of the Brook Project. I noted that our current figures do not factor in potential economic upside from the patent-pending use of blending e-waste and PVC into our existing critical mineral feedstock. We are also continuing to evaluate the deposit for additional critical minerals and rare earth elements within the deposit, which we intend to disclose as more complete assay information becomes available from our extensive ongoing testing. We continue ongoing geological, chemical and metallurgical testing to frame both the resource and ultimately reserve potential of the remaining roughly 11,500 acres. On downstream marketing, we remain in advanced stages regarding potential domestic and international both strategic and governmental offtake transactions. These offtake discussions continue to progress as the flowsheet is further defined. We look forward to being able to disclose offtake transactions as they are finalized. We are well financed to advance the Brook Project through all stages of project development up to construction of the critical mineral refinery. Indeed, we believe that we have sufficient capital for all mining aspects of the project. Our future financing for the refinery has taken on new optionality given the potential levels of cash flow generated from both the expected refining and downstream trading operations as well as from our strategic stockpile and terminal. We are currently in multiple discussions regarding non-dilutive third-party project financing to develop the Critical Mineral Refining complex, which may involve the public and/or private sectors. These discussions, just like our marketing efforts, will now proceed on an accelerated basis now that we have the Hatch report's technical findings as a starting point. We are mindful of the challenges ahead to develop this unique complex over the coming years. I have used the expression "transformative" before. Few could argue that the critical mineral business alongside our metallurgical coal business is a transformative step. Given the Brook Mine's importance not only to Ramaco, but also to the United States and friendly aligned nations, we continue to proceed methodically and look forward to discussing future milestones as they mature into disclosable matters. Moving to our legacy metallurgical coal business, in June our Board approved a $25 million development project for the first two underground sections at our Maben Complex, with spending planned over the next 12 months. Given stronger low-vol market conditions, we anticipate this current expansion at Maben will add 0.6 million premium low-vol tons of production at full capacity. This coal we expect to have cash margins roughly double the Company's overall second quarter margins. Maben's expansion will also translate into ultimate production levels of roughly 1.5 million tons annually from Maben, once the third and fourth underground sections are added. When combined with our previously announced growth at our Berwind Complex, our ongoing low-vol growth projects are expected to add more than 1 million annualized tons of low-vol production in 2027, when Berwind and the two underground sections at Maben are fully operational in the second half of next year. This will support our strategic objective of increasing low-vol production to at least 50% of our total production, up from roughly 25% today. I would like to once again commend our metallurgical operations team. Our second quarter cash mine cost per ton sold of $99 represented the fourth consecutive quarter of sub-$100 per ton cash cost. This was achieved despite diesel prices increasing by approximately 33% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. Based on this operational discipline, our cash costs remain in the first quartile of the U.S. metallurgical coal cost curve. Lastly, I will comment on our share repurchase program. During the second quarter we repurchased 3.5 million Class A common shares in the open market at an average price of $14.41 per share, spending roughly $51 million. Year to date, we have repurchased nearly 4.6 million Class A common shares, over 8%, at an average price of $14.44. Our view is that these repurchases represented a prudent use of our capital, which we will continue to review as market conditions present themselves. In summary, this quarter has been a watershed in our overall growth strategy as well as our dual platform evolution. We are excited about the continued progress we have made in our critical mineral business at the Brook Mine and the projected potential for future development of our unique deposit resource. We look forward to announcing continued future milestones in the coming months. We are also pleased with the advancements and production acceleration in our low-vol metallurgical coal growth program. In a still-challenging market landscape, we are exercising the discipline and control needed to successfully position for future improvements in the overall metallurgical markets." Key operational and financial metrics are presented below (unaudited): SECOND QUARTER 2026 PERFORMANCE In the following paragraphs, all references to "quarterly" periods or to "the quarter" refer to the second quarter of 2026, unless specified otherwise. Quarterly 2026 over 2025 Year Comparison Overall coal production of 931,000 tons in the second quarter of 2026 was down 7% from the same period of 2025. The decline was largely due to the previously announced idling of higher-cost metallurgical coal production prompted by weak market conditions. U.S. high-vol metallurgical coal indices fell 6% versus the second quarter of 2025. As a result, quarterly pricing was $116 per ton, or 6% lower, compared to $123 per ton in the second quarter of 2025. Of note, Australian premium low-vol indices were up 29% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026, while U.S. low-vol indices were up almost 10% year-over-year. Cash mine costs were $99 per ton sold, excluding transportation costs and idle mine costs, and were 4% lower than in the same period of 2025 on the back of continued gains in productivity. Resultant cash margins were $17 per ton during the second quarter, down 15% from $20 per ton in the same period of 2025. This was based on non-GAAP revenue (FOB mine) and non-GAAP cash cost of sales (FOB mine). Quarterly 2026 Sequential Comparison Second quarter of 2026 production of 931,000 tons was down 2% from the first quarter of 2026. The decrease was due to high-vol production discipline in the current challenging market environment. Second quarter of 2026 sales of 1,056,000 tons were up 18% from the first quarter of 2026, slightly exceeding our guidance. Realized second quarter pricing of $116 per ton was up 2% from $114 per ton in the first quarter of 2026. This increase was primarily due to a higher percentage of second quarter shipments linked to either U.S. or Australian low-vol indices. Quarterly cash costs of $99 per ton were up $1 per ton, or 1%, compared to the first quarter of 2026. The slight increase in cash costs was largely due to higher diesel prices. Quarterly cash margins were $17 per ton, up 6% compared to the first quarter, mainly due to favorable pricing. These figures are based on non-GAAP revenue (FOB mine) and non-GAAP cash cost of sales (FOB mine). BALANCE SHEET AND LIQUIDITY As of June 30, 2026, the Company had liquidity of $400.1 million, consisting of approximately $282.5 million of cash and $117.6 million of borrowing availability under our revolving credit facility. There were zero borrowings under our revolving credit facility as of June 30, 2026. Liquidity was up nearly 360% compared to the same period of 2025. Quarterly capital expenditures totaled $27.4 million, up 81% compared to $15.1 million in the same period of 2025. This compared to $17.1 million for the first quarter of 2026. The increase was driven by the ramp-up of the Company's low-vol growth projects at both the Berwind and Maben Complexes. For the second quarter of 2026, the Company recognized an income tax benefit of $4.2 million, an approximate 21% effective tax benefit rate, excluding the impact of discrete items. The following summarizes key sales, production and financial metrics for the periods noted (unaudited): Class B Dividend Relating to its Class B common shares, the Board declared a stock dividend of $0.1535 per share of Class B common stock payable in shares of the Company's Class B common stock on September 25, 2026 (the "Payment Date"), to shareholders of record as of the close of Nasdaq on September 11, 2026 (the "Record Date"). The dividend will be paid in Class B common stock and the amount of shares to be issued per share owned will be determined by dividing the dividend amount by the closing transaction price of the Class B common stock at the close of the market on the Record Date. No fractional shares will be issued in connection with the stock dividend. In lieu of the issuance of fractional shares, the Company will pay in cash on the Payment Date the fair value of the fractions of a share issuable, determined as of the close of Nasdaq on the Record Date and based upon the closing transaction price per share of the Class B common stock reported by Nasdaq on that date. FINANCIAL GUIDANCE (In thousands, except per ton amounts and percentages) Committed 2026 Sales Volume(a) (In millions, except per ton amounts) (unaudited) ABOUT RAMACO RESOURCES Ramaco Resources, Inc. is an operator and developer of high-quality, low-cost metallurgical coal in southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia, and is exploring a coal, rare earth, and other critical minerals project in Wyoming. The Company's executive offices are located in Lexington, Kentucky, with operational offices in Charleston, West Virginia and Sheridan, Wyoming. The Company currently has four active metallurgical coal mining complexes in Central Appalachia and one coal mine and rare earth element and other critical mineral exploration stage property near Sheridan, Wyoming (the "Brook Mine"). The Brook Mine remains an exploration stage property, and no assurance can be given that it will be successfully developed into a commercial scale mine or that any inferred mineral resources estimated will be converted into higher confidence mineral resources or eventually mineral reserves. Contiguous to the Brook Mine, the Company operates a carbon research facility related to the potential production of advanced carbon products and materials from coal. In connection with these activities, it holds a body of more than 70 intellectual property patents, pending applications, exclusive licensing agreements and various trademarks. News and additional information about Ramaco Resources, including filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, are available at https://www.ramacoresources.com. For more information, contact investor relations at (859) 244-7455. SECOND QUARTER 2026 CONFERENCE CALL Ramaco Resources will hold its quarterly conference call and webcast at 11:00 AM Eastern Time (ET) on Wednesday, August 5, 2026. An accompanying slide deck will be available at https://www.ramacoresources.com/investors/investor-presentations/ immediately before the conference call. To participate in the live teleconference on August 5, 2026: Domestic Live: (833) 890-6680International Live: (412) 564-6129Conference ID: Ramaco Resources Second Quarter 2026 ResultsWeb link: Click Here CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements related to future production volumes and sales, anticipated capital expenditures, expected demand for metallurgical coal, the development and commercialization of the Brook Mine rare earth and critical mineral project, projected operating costs and margins, and the Company's financial guidance and outlook. These forward-looking statements represent Ramaco Resources' expectations or beliefs concerning guidance, future events, anticipated revenue, future demand and production levels, macroeconomic trends, the development of ongoing projects, costs and expectations regarding operating results, and it is possible that the results described in this news release will not be achieved. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Ramaco Resources' control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, without limitation, unexpected delays in our current mine development activities, the ability to successfully increase production at our existing met coal complexes in accordance with the Company's growth initiatives, failure of our sales commitment counterparties to perform, increased government regulation of coal in the United States or internationally, the impact of tariffs imposed by the United States and foreign governments, the further decline of demand for coal in export markets and underperformance of the railroads, the Company's ability to successfully develop the exploratory Brook Mine rare earth and critical mineral project, including whether the Company's exploration target and estimates for such mine are realized, the timing of the initial production of rare earth concentrates, the development of a pilot and ultimately a full scale commercial processing facility. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not meet the threshold for reserve modifying factors, such as estimated economic viability, that would allow for conversion to mineral reserves. There is no certainty that any part of the inferred mineral resources estimated at Brook Mine will be converted into higher confidence mineral resources and eventually mineral reserves in the future. Rare earth and critical minerals are a new initiative for us and, as such, has required and will continue to require us to make significant investments to build out our rare earth and other critical mineral capabilities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, Ramaco Resources does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for Ramaco Resources to predict all such factors. When considering these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements found in Ramaco Resources' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The risk factors and other factors noted in Ramaco Resources' SEC filings could cause its actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures (Unaudited) Adjusted EBITDA Adjusted EBITDA is used as a supplemental non-GAAP financial measure by management and external users of our financial statements, such as industry analysts, investors, lenders, and rating agencies. We believe Adjusted EBITDA is useful because it allows us to evaluate our operating performance more effectively. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income plus net interest expense; equity-based compensation; depreciation, depletion, and amortization expenses; income taxes; accretion of asset retirement obligations; and, when applicable, certain other non-operating and expense items that are non-recurring and not related to the underlying business performance. Its most comparable GAAP measure is net income. A reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA is included below. Adjusted EBITDA is not intended to serve as a substitute for GAAP measures of performance and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Non-GAAP revenue and cash cost per ton Non-GAAP revenue per ton (FOB mine) is calculated as coal sales revenue less transportation costs including demurrage costs, divided by tons sold. Non-GAAP cash cost per ton sold (FOB mine) is calculated as cash cost of coal sales less transportation costs and idle and other costs, divided by tons sold. We believe revenue per ton (FOB mine) and cash cost per ton (FOB mine) provide useful information to investors as these enable investors to compare revenue per ton and cash cost per ton for the Company against similar measures made by other publicly-traded coal companies and more effectively monitor changes in coal prices and costs from period to period excluding the impact of transportation costs, which are beyond our control. The adjustments made to arrive at these measures are significant in understanding and assessing the Company's financial performance. Revenue per ton sold (FOB mine) and cash cost per ton sold (FOB mine) are not measures of financial performance in accordance with GAAP and therefore should not be considered as a substitute for revenue and cost of sales under GAAP. The tables below show how we calculate non-GAAP revenue and cash cost per ton: Non-GAAP revenue per ton (unaudited) Non-GAAP cash cost per ton (unaudited) We do not provide reconciliations of our outlook for cash cost per ton to cost of sales in reliance on the unreasonable efforts exception provided for under Item 10(e)(1)(i)(B) of Regulation S-K. We are unable, without unreasonable efforts, to forecast certain items required to develop the meaningful comparable GAAP cost of sales. These items typically include non-cash asset retirement obligation accretion expenses, mine idling expenses and other non-recurring indirect mining expenses that are difficult to predict in advance in order to include a GAAP estimate. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ramaco-resources-reports-second-quarter-2026-results-302842977.html

LEXINGTON, Ky., July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ramaco Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: METC, METCB) ("Ramaco" or the "Company") will report second quarter 2026 financial results on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, after market close. The earnings news release will be available on the Company's investor relations website at www.ramacoresources.com and through major financial information sites. At 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, Ramaco Resources will host an investor conference call and webcast where Randall W. Atkins, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Christopher L. Blanchard, EVP for Mine Planning & Development, Jeremy R. Sussman, EVP & Chief Financial Officer, Jason T. Fannin, EVP & Chief Commercial Officer, and Michael Woloschuk, EVP for Critical Minerals Operations will discuss second quarter 2026 results. In addition to second quarter financial results, the Company will also discuss recent developments related to its exploratory Brook Mine critical minerals project, including the findings of the Company's new initial assessment report from Hatch Associates Consultants, Inc. The conference call can be accessed by calling 1-833-890-6680 domestically or 1-412-564-6129 internationally. The webcast for this release will be accessible by visiting: https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=VFfRSVjw ABOUT RAMACO RESOURCES Ramaco Resources, Inc. is an operator and developer of high-quality, low-cost metallurgical coal in southern West Virginia, and southwestern Virginia and exploring a coal, rare earth and other critical minerals project in Wyoming. The Company's executive offices are located in Lexington, Kentucky, with operational offices in Charleston, West Virginia and Sheridan, Wyoming. The Company currently has four active metallurgical coal mining complexes in Central Appalachia and one coal mine and rare earth element and other critical mineral exploration stage property near Sheridan, Wyoming (the "Brook Mine"). The Brook Mine remains an exploration stage property, and no assurance can be given that it will be successfully developed into a commercial scale mine or that any inferred mineral resources estimated will be converted into higher confidence mineral resources or eventually mineral reserves. Contiguous to the Brook Mine, the Company operates a carbon research facility related to the potential production of advanced carbon products and materials from coal. In connection with these activities, it holds a body of more than 70 intellectual property patents, pending applications, exclusive licensing agreements and various trademarks. News and additional information about Ramaco Resources, including filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, are available at https://www.ramacoresources.com. For more information, contact investor relations at (859) 244-7455. POINT OF CONTACTINVESTOR RELATIONS:George CpinVP, Finance & Investor [email protected] or 859-244-7455 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ramaco-resources-inc-to-release-second-quarter-2026-financial-results-on-tuesday-august-4-2026-and-host-conference-call-and-webcast-on-wednesday-august-5-302838930.html

Wall Street expects a year-over-year increase in earnings on lower revenues when Ramaco Resources (METC) reports results for the quarter ended June 2026. While this widely-known consensus outlook is important in gauging the company's earnings picture, a powerful factor that could impact its near-term stock price is how the actual results compare to these estimates. The stock might move higher if these key numbers top expectations in the upcoming earnings report. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower. While management's discussion of business conditions on the earnings call will mostly determine the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations, it's worth having a handicapping insight into the odds of a positive EPS surprise. This company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.23 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +20.7%. Revenues are expected to be $131.82 million, down 13.8% from the year-ago quarter. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 171.43% lower over the last 30 days to the current level. This is essentially a reflection of how the covering analysts have collectively reassessed their initial estimates over this period. Investors should keep in mind that the direction of estimate revisions by each of the covering analysts may not always get reflected in the aggregate change. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Estimate revisions ahead of a company's earnings release offer clues to the business conditions for the period whose results are coming out. This insight is at the core of our proprietary surprise prediction model -- the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction). The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a more recent version of the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Thus, a positive or negative Earnings ESP reading theoretically indicates the likely deviation of the actual earnings from the consensus estimate. However, the model's predictive power is significant for positive ESP readings only. A positive Earnings ESP is a strong predictor of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). Our research shows that stocks with this combination produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and a solid Zacks Rank actually increases the predictive power of Earnings ESP. Please note that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss. Our research shows that it is difficult to predict an earnings beat with any degree of confidence for stocks with negative Earnings ESP readings and/or Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell) or 5 (Strong Sell). For Ramaco Resources, the Most Accurate Estimate is higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate, suggesting that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This has resulted in an Earnings ESP of +8.70%. On the other hand, the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank of #4. So, this combination makes it difficult to conclusively predict that Ramaco Resources will beat the consensus EPS estimate. Analysts often consider to what extent a company has been able to match consensus estimates in the past while calculating their estimates for its future earnings. So, it's worth taking a look at the surprise history for gauging its influence on the upcoming number. For the last reported quarter, it was expected that Ramaco Resources would post a loss of$0.22 per share when it actually produced a loss of -$0.30, delivering a surprise of -36.36%. Over the last four quarters, the company has beaten consensus EPS estimates just once. An earnings beat or miss may not be the sole basis for a stock moving higher or lower. Many stocks end up losing ground despite an earnings beat due to other factors that disappoint investors. Similarly, unforeseen catalysts help a number of stocks gain despite an earnings miss. That said, betting on stocks that are expected to beat earnings expectations does increase the odds of success. This is why it's worth checking a company's Earnings ESP and Zacks Rank ahead of its quarterly release. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported. Ramaco Resources doesn't appear a compelling earnings-beat candidate. However, investors should pay attention to other factors too for betting on this stock or staying away from it ahead of its earnings release. Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Ramaco Resources, Inc. (METC) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

LEXINGTON, Ky., June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ramaco Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: METC, METCB, "Ramaco" or the "Company") today announced the dividend ratio of its previously declared Class B common stock dividend for the second quarter of 2026. As previously announced, the board of directors approved and declared a quarterly Class B common stock dividend of $0.1369 per share of Class B common stock, payable on June 26, 2026 (the "Payment Date"), to shareholders of record on June 12, 2026 (the "Record Date"), with the dividend to be paid in shares of Class B common stock. Also as previously announced, Class B common stockholders will receive a number of shares of Class B common stock for each share owned of Class B common stock determined by dividing $0.1369 by the closing transaction price of the Class B common stock on June 12, 2026, which was $11.43 per share (the "Class B Closing Price"). Based on the Class B Closing Price, each Class B common stockholder will receive 0.011977 of one share of Class B common stock for each share of Class B common stock held by the Class B common stockholder at the close of the market on June 12, 2026. No fractional shares will be issued in connection with the above-described stock dividend. In lieu of the issuance of fractional shares, the Company will pay in cash on the Payment Date the fair value of the fractions of a share issuable, determined as of the close of Nasdaq on the Record Date and based upon the Class B Closing Price. For additional information please see our Current Report on Form 8-K which is expected to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission later today. ABOUT RAMACO RESOURCES Ramaco Resources, Inc. is an operator and developer of high-quality, low-cost metallurgical coal in southern West Virginia, and southwestern Virginia and exploring a coal, rare earth and other critical minerals project in Wyoming. The Company's executive offices are located in Lexington, Kentucky, with operational offices in Charleston, West Virginia and Sheridan, Wyoming. The Company currently has four active metallurgical coal mining complexes in Central Appalachia and one coal mine and rare earth element and other critical mineral exploration stage property near Sheridan, Wyoming (the "Brook Mine"). The Brook Mine remains an exploration stage property, and no assurance can be given that it will be successfully developed into a commercial scale mine or that any inferred mineral resources estimated will be converted into higher confidence mineral resources or eventually mineral reserves. Contiguous to the Brook Mine, the Company operates a carbon research facility related to the potential production of advanced carbon products and materials from coal. In connection with these activities, it holds a body of more than 70 intellectual property patents, pending applications, exclusive licensing agreements and various trademarks. News and additional information about Ramaco Resources, including filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, are available at https://www.ramacoresources.com. For more information, contact investor relations at (859) 244-7455. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements related to future production volumes and sales, anticipated capital expenditures, expected demand for metallurgical coal, the development and commercialization of the Brook Mine rare earth and critical mineral project, projected operating costs and margins, and the Company's financial guidance and outlook. These forward-looking statements represent Ramaco Resources' expectations or beliefs concerning guidance, future events, anticipated revenue, future demand and production levels, macroeconomic trends, the development of ongoing projects, costs and expectations regarding operating results, and it is possible that the results described in this news release will not be achieved. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Ramaco Resources' control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, without limitation, unexpected delays in our current mine development activities, the ability to successfully increase production at our existing met coal complexes in accordance with the Company's growth initiatives, failure of our sales commitment counterparties to perform, increased government regulation of coal in the United States or internationally, the impact of tariffs imposed by the United States and foreign governments, the further decline of demand for coal in export markets and underperformance of the railroads, the Company's ability to successfully develop the exploratory Brook Mine rare earth and critical mineral project, including whether the Company's exploration target and estimates for such mine are realized, the timing of the initial production of rare earth concentrates, the development of a pilot and ultimately a full scale commercial processing facility. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not meet the threshold for reserve modifying factors, such as estimated economic viability, that would allow for conversion to mineral reserves. There is no certainty that any part of the inferred mineral resources estimated at Brook Mine will be converted into higher confidence mineral resources and eventually mineral reserves in the future. Rare earth and critical minerals are a new initiative for us and, as such, has required and will continue to require us to make significant investments to build out our rare earth and other critical mineral capabilities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, Ramaco Resources does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for Ramaco Resources to predict all such factors. When considering these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements found in Ramaco Resources' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The risk factors and other factors noted in Ramaco Resources' SEC filings could cause its actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. POINT OF CONTACTINVESTOR RELATIONS: [email protected] or 859-244-7455 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ramaco-resources-announces-second-quarter-class-b-stock-dividend-details-302799789.html

Image source: The Motley Fool. Tuesday, May 12, 2026 at 10 a.m. ET Chairman and Chief Executive Officer — Randall W. Atkins Chief Financial Officer — Jeremy Ryan Sussman Chief Commercial Officer — Jason T. Fannin EVP, Mine Planning and Development — Christopher L. Blanchard Head, Critical Minerals — Michael Woloschuk Randall W. Atkins: I would also like to remind you that you can find a reconciliation of the non GAAP financial measures that we plan to discuss today in our press release and can be viewed on our website, www.ramacoresources.com. Lastly, I would encourage everyone on this call to go on to our website and download today's investor presentation With that said, let me introduce our Chairman and CEO, Randy Atkins. Thanks, Jeremy, and thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. I am going to lead off with our shareholder return and capital allocation strategy because since the start of the year, we bought back a significant amount of stock and that has been for the first time. As we said in our release thus far this year we have repurchased about 2.6 million shares of our Class A common stock. At an average price of about $14.50 per share that represents about 5% of our stock. Our stock currently continues to trade below levels of last year when we issued equity either directly in a stock issuance last summer or indirectly through our convertible notes last fall. We are also now generally trading on a forward basis in line with our met coal peers based on consensus estimates. As a dual platform company, we are currently seeing very little value in our stock price that reflects our rare earth or other critical mineral assets. So given that backdrop, we are going to continue to explore whether buying shares represents a prudent investment of our current cash capital. As of today, we have got $63 million of additional buying power under the original $100 million authorization, which the board provided last year. We also ended the first quarter with $490 million in liquidity. Which was up about 310% year-over-year. Our balance sheet is giving us lots of options to simultaneously consider continued share repurchases, advancing efforts at our Brook Mine or growth efforts for our low vol coals. And turning to the met coal business, we continued strong cost control in the same challenging market price conditions we have now endured for the past year. Our miss for this quarter has all been top line. This was the third consecutive quarter of cash costs were under $100 per ton. In the face of the rising diesel prices this year, we have managed to accomplish this cost discipline without cutting wages or benefits to our minors, which we regard as the most significant. I would note that on our mine cost, the conflict within Iran has had a related impact, of course, on oil pricing, and has escalated the cost of all of our fuel products. We have seen rack pricing increase to as high as $5.45 a gallon across our operations which is up from about $2.50 at the end of last year. Based on our historical purchases and usage of diesel and gasoline, on an annualized basis, Ramaco would realize about $1 per ton of cost increase for each dollar per gallon of diesel fuel increase. This impacts not only direct mine cost, but indirectly through third party transportation costs, for both our raw and clean coal. While we are expecting fuel prices to ultimately subside sometime in the second half, At current levels, the impact on our mining cost is $4 per ton when compared to earlier this year in 2026. And despite our continued solid operational performance, coal markets remain challenged. Both in general and especially on pricing. Once again, especially on high vol side, While high vol prices rose modestly in the 2026, we still view current indices as unsustainably weak. 1 important point that I would like to note, however, is regarding future pricing. We are finally beginning to see some long anticipated drops in production, both domestically and overseas. We are witnessing everything from bankruptcies production cutbacks, distressed sale processes, and in all these cases, they involve both large public and private producers. By our estimates, almost 2 million tons came out of the domestic market in 2025. This year, we expect an additional roughly 3 million tons or more to follow. At some inflection point, these production cutbacks will create a supply imbalance which will begin to impact pricing, we hope. Our growth plans relating to coal are all about the low vol markets. Last quarter, we restarted our Laurel mine and we will be adding an additional third section to our Berwind mine this summer. At full production, these projects are expected to add about 100 thousand to 200 thousand tons of low vol in 2026 and about 0.5 million tons of production additionally in 2027. Our new rail loadout is under construction at our Low-Vol Maben complex is expected to be complete later this year. When it opens, we expect to save about $20 per ton on trucking costs. And the load out of course gives us more options when we consider whether and when to start our Maben 1.5-million-ton low-vol deep mine project as market conditions dictate. We have also been a bit quiet for the past few months on our rare earth element and critical minerals front. However, we have not been idle. I expect that in the second half, we will reflect and announce a number of milestones. We have principally been waiting on receipt of the revised conceptual study from Hatch, which we expect in late June, as well as the technical geological report summary coming from Weir which will follow. Both of these analyses are based on our new patent pending Carbochlorination processing technique. As we noted last quarter, our internal projections continue to estimate that this new flow sheet process should generate a material increase in incremental revenue and free cash flow. This is compared, of course, to our previously published projections by Fluor about a year ago using a different solvent extraction processing technique. With new independent analysis for the Carbochlorination flow sheet coming in focus, We have ramped up efforts regarding potential off take transactions and non dilutive third party financings. I will not get into specifics today, but we will make specific disclosures when those transactions are hopefully complete. But advanced discussions are continuing with both domestic and overseas groups, and these include both public and private counterparties. A further note, the subsequent more detailed preliminary feasibility study also being prepared by Hatch remains on track to be completed in late 26. Today in Wyoming, our building structure to house the pilot plant seems to be completed this summer. And the fabricated interior equipment will start installation this fall with full pilot operations starting in 2027. All as previously announced. Last quarter, I also mentioned that we were exploring some reorganization options for Ramaco's overall corporate structure as we move further into our dual platform. This effort is largely in response to anticipating the startup of our critical mineral operations. We have now taken a number of concrete legal and accounting steps to move this forward. And have formed separate corporate entities within a holding company structure currently under the parent Ramaco Resources. 1 new company will be called Ramaco Royalty. This will house all our mineral reserves, infrastructure, intellectual property rights, and other related income producing assets. This will include our fee owned reserves of both metallurgical and thermal coals as well as our rare earth and critical minerals. Similarly, this entity will own our infrastructure assets in the East such as our prep plants and rail load outs. And in the West it will own our pre FEED infrastructure related to the Brook Mine processing facility. It will also include any possible rail infrastructure as well as the critical mineral and storage facility we have been working on with Goldman Sachs. To our knowledge, this will be a unique collection of income producing assets especially those relating to rare earths. Which will provide us some optionality in the future. The second company will be Ramaco Critical Mineral Resources. This will house the production and sales operation of our Western Brook Mine rare earth, critical minerals and thermal coal mining. Think of this as mirroring the same form of our existing met coal development production and sales operation in the East. Except it will be exclusively focused on our Western critical minerals. The third company will be Ramaco Refining. This will hold the carbochlorination separation facilities to be constructed to process the Brook Mine critical mineral feedstocks into oxides and MREC+ This reorganization is being taken to both ultimately enhance shareholder value and better reflect the different and distinct forms of assets and operations that we both currently have and are developing for the future. Each of these operations have different operating, financial and capital market profiles. Even though for the time being they will all operate under the holding company structure of our parent Ramaco Resources. Hopefully, this structure will provide more operation operational and financial flexibility as we develop different and separate production processing and sales businesses in both the met coal as well as the critical mineral space. We expect to have the pieces in place for this reorganization in the second half of the year, and we will also talk about it further at that point. So with that, I would like to turn the floor back over to the rest of the team to discuss finances and operations and markets. But first, I will ask Michael Woloschuk, who heads our critical mineral efforts to provide some updates on our rare earth progress. So, Mike? Michael Woloschuk: Thank you, Randy. In the Q1, we continued advancing the conceptual study for the Carbochlorination flow sheet with Hatch. Key engineering deliverables have been completed and issued in the quarter. The mineralized Brook mine coal used as a key reagent in this process is estimated to be a significant contribution to rare earth element production as the enriched coal seams are targeted for this duty. We identified opportunities to increase chlorine recycling and we have identified other opportunities that will be included in the final study report anticipated for late June. Jeremy Ryan Sussman: While we are continuing third party metallurgical testing, we placed key analytical and equipment orders to fit out our internal geometallurgical laboratory at the ICAM facility. This will enable a higher volume of test work and assay results to be delivered with faster turnaround times compared to the external labs. We anticipate internal geometallurgical testing to ramp up in early Q2 to support the next phases of this project. Also in Q1, we completed drilling of 33 holes with over 9.3 thousand feet of core These drill programs include 27 infill drill holes and 6 water monitoring holes. We currently have 4 drill rigs on-site and we anticipate drilling to continue to year-end. In total, we now have drilled 174 holes and 35 thousand feet of core since our program started. Pilot plant building construction activities included completion of the foundation systems to support the floor slab with the overall building expected to be complete late summer and early fall. Our coal storage facility construction has included the completion of the foundation the stem walls and lateral reinforced tension members. The overall structure is expected to be completed this month. Overall, we remain extremely excited about the Brook Mine opportunity with the Carbochlorination flow sheet. We will, of course, be in a position to discuss more about that once we have receipt of the Hatch and Weir reports expected shortly. Our overall timeline remains the same as we have previously disclosed. In the second half of this year, we look forward to making meaningful progress on both completing the pilot plant build out along with the pre feasibility study. I would like to now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Jeremy Ryan Sussman. Randall W. Atkins: Thank you, Mike. Jeremy Ryan Sussman: Starting with the balance sheet, I am pleased to note that our record year-end 2025 liquidity allowed us to opportunistically repurchase $37 million worth of shares since the beginning of this year This effectively reduces our shares outstanding by 2.5 million shares. As Randy noted, as long as we believe that our stock remains substantially undervalued, we will continue to look to opportunistically repurchase shares to our advantage. We ended Q1 with 1 of the strongest balance sheets in the space with almost $500 million in liquidity. In terms of first quarter performance, as Christopher will discuss, operational results were again solid with cash costs of $98. All of our primary peers have now reported Q1 results, and I am proud to note that our $98 per ton continued to be in the first quartile of The U. S. Cash cost curve among our Central Appalachian met coal peers. This figure is especially impressive considering the dual impact of higher diesel costs, coupled with the weather related transportation issues that negatively impacted our overall sales figures by 50 thousand tons in the first quarter. Q1 cash margins of $16 per ton fell $24 per ton in the same period of 2025. This was due to lower realized price of $114 per ton compared $122 per ton in 2025. As Jason will discuss, domestic high vol markets remain weak. Despite Australian benchmark pricing $50 per ton year-on-year in 2026, U.S. high-vol indices fell $20 per ton during that same time frame. Frankly, we view this trend as unsustainable given the level of losses we are seeing among higher cost producers. Our Q1 production fell modestly from the same period as last year as we continue to exercise production discipline in the face of challenging market conditions. In terms of our financial results, Q1 adjusted EBITDA was negative $1.8 million compared to $10 million in 2025. Class A EPS showed $0.30 loss in Q1 versus $0.19 loss in the same period of last year. Looking forward, we are reiterating all key 2026 operational guidance including production, tons sold and cash costs. In terms of second quarter 26 guidance, we anticipate higher shipments between 900 thousand and 1 million tons. We expect cash costs towards the higher end of the full year range for the second quarter on the back of elevated fuel costs due to the Iranian conflict. As we look ahead, our strong balance sheet and first quartile cash cost position provide us with meaningful optionality to both invest in our coal and rare earth elements business while also allowing us to continue to opportunistically repurchase shares. In addition, as of March 31, we had over 1 million tons sitting in inventory which will provide us with a meaningful working capital tailwind should markets improve throughout the year as we anticipate. With that said, I would now like to turn the call back to Christopher L. Blanchard, our EVP for Mine Planning and Development. Christopher L. Blanchard: Thanks, Jeremy. Before jumping into some of our operational metrics and progress over the last few months, I wanted to recognize our coal miners for their significant improvements in safety and compliance in 2026 compared to the same period last year. While we still have much work to do, towards an ultimate goal of zero incidents, 2026 year-to-date performance is up 250% compared to the same period in 2025 and is back on a trajectory of continuous improvement that we have had for most of our history. In these challenging market conditions, it does remind us that a safe mine is a productive mine and productive mines tend to be lower cost as well. Turning to those performance metrics, we have been able to maintain acceptable cash costs at our operation despite headwinds on our operating supply costs. Specifically, the run up in the cost of diesel fuel driven by the Iranian conflict has impacted first quarter costs negatively by $1.50 per ton sold compared to where we otherwise would have been. While fuel prices have pulled back from peak levels, they do remain elevated compared to the beginning of the year and we continue to monitor this closely. Also on the supply side, raw tungsten pricing is up by approximately 350% in 2026 on Chinese export controls. This has led to nearly a 100% increase in the cost of our mining bits and tools, which particularly impacts our underground mines. We are continuing to work with our key suppliers to mitigate these cost increases and others whenever possible. Given the poor coal pricing environment on the high vol side of the business, we have moderated production from our Elk Creek complex to both manage physical inventory and to not produce additional tons into a marginal market. Continuing to monitor the market conditions and may make further reductions throughout the year if they are warranted. However, at our low vol operations, we continue to work to add new low cost production and lower our existing operating costs there. At the Berwind complex, the first of 2 new air shafts is nearing completion into our Berwind Pocahontas No. 4 Mine. The second shaft will be excavated immediately following the first and we expect both shafts online and in operation by late August. This ventilation upgrade will then allow us to ramp 900 thousand to 1 million clean tons annually. While this ventilation work is still ongoing, during April, we brought online our idled Laurel Fork low-vol mine. The ramp up of this single section mine is continuing and is on budget currently. Switching to our Maben Low-Vol Complex, we have initiated The Norfolk Southern rail load out project. All major materials are procured and excavation for the loadout belt is already underway. We expect the unit train loadout to be fully operational in the 2026 fully eliminating trucking logistics costs from our Maben Mine and lowering projected cash costs in the railcar to the same low levels as the rest of Ramaco's mines. This should also allow the Maben product to move more easily into the domestic metallurgical coal markets as we contract for 2027. Finally, work continues at Maben on permitting and initial development work for the future underground mines planned for this complex. Moving forward, we are continuing to focus on those items, which we have some ability to control, namely volume and costs. We are positioning ourselves to quickly capitalize on market improvements, or shortfalls by other producers. For a discussion of the coal and critical mineral markets, I would now like to shift the call to Jason T. Fannin, Chief Commercial Officer. Jason T. Fannin: Christopher, and good morning, everyone. Today, I will discuss our Q1 sales results, provide an update on our 2026 met coal sales position and market outlook, and lastly, cover our Brook Mine critical minerals marketing efforts and progress. Regarding the seaborne metallurgical coal markets, I first want to address Q1 indices and pricing dynamics. Our realized pricing in Q1 was marginally lower quarter over quarter despite benchmark indices broadly moving higher. The explanation is straightforward and it comes down to 2 things. Which geographies and indices our book was sold into and against and a set of non recurring operational headwinds. On the index side, although the PLV headline number rose 17% in Q1, the relevant benchmarks for the majority of our export tonnage fell 6% quarter over quarter. Jeremy Ryan Sussman: These were sales against The U.S. high-vol indices. Which today are 35% lower than the PLV index. Jason T. Fannin: And remain heavily deviated from their historical relativities to PLV. Another 25% of our Q1 sales were domestic shipments of high-vol-B coal. With pricing of course down year-over-year about 8.5%. Jeremy Ryan Sussman: Furthermore, 55% of our Q1 exports went to Asia, which is the highest proportion in company history. Unfortunately, PLV-linked business represent only about 15% of our overall Q1 volumes, because a large PLV-linked shipment representing another 6% of overall Q1 volume slipped into early Q2 due to weather related logistics backlogs. Increased shipments against PLV linked contracts should benefit export realizations versus Q1. Jason T. Fannin: On the operational side, severe weather disruptions to both CSX and Norfolk Southern rail networks in January and February impacted our ability to make timely planned coal deliveries particularly some higher priced domestic specialty orders which slipped into Q2. Jeremy Ryan Sussman: Also for Q2, we expect increased overall shipment volumes with our Great Lakes business now fully flowing and the normalization of the rail and weather related disruptions that impacted Q1 execution. Jason T. Fannin: On pricing for Q2, we expect to move 70% to 75% of committed volumes to the seaborne market with about 25% of export tons priced off the PLV index. Another 25% on a fixed pricing basis and the remaining seaborne volumes roughly evenly split and priced against the U.S. low-vol and the U.S. high-vol indices respectively. Jeremy Ryan Sussman: Turning to our overall 2026 sales position, we have now secured commitments for a total of 3.5 million tons which represents about 90% of our planned annual production at the midpoint. Domestic customers account for 1.1 million tons at an average fixed price of $138 per ton Export commitments totaled 2.4 million tons. Comprised of 1 million tons at an average fixed price of $107 per ton. and 1.4 million tons on index linked pricing mechanisms. As of the end of Q1, we had shipped 650 thousand tons of our annual index based business and had about 1.75 million tons remaining to price. Jason T. Fannin: As we look ahead to the 2026, we are optimistic about an improved market environment for met coal. On the demand side, protectionist policies in The U. S. And Europe have lifted steel prices and increased hot metal output. While India's 2026 crude steel production is projected to increase 8% to 9% year-over-year. Furthermore, in 1 of the most constructive developments for seaborne coking coal demand in some time, China's steel exports have fallen nearly 10% through April on a year-over-year basis. If that moderation proves durable, it will lend considerable support to global steel prices and blast furnace mill margins. On the supply side, we expect high vol coking coal production to continue to contract throughout the year which should narrow the widest spread between U.S. high-vol indices and Australian indices. Randy and Jeremy have already pointed to a number of Appalachian and Australian Producers Who Have Either Gone Into Bankruptcy Curtailed Productions Or placed assets For Sale. As the year Plays Out, this expected supply Contraction Will Have An Impact. Specifically Regarding Australia, we believe current PLV levels are not only sustainable, but have further upside as the year goes on. This is set against the backdrop of limited capital investment, high royalty taxes, and continued production issues and interruptions, alongside strengthening global steel markets. Moving to our Brook Mine, we continue to advance critical minerals marketing program with increasing momentum. Our expanded marketing team is actively engaging potential customers and partners in The U. S. And overseas. Across the full Brook Mine product portfolio. We hope to announce various counterparty MOU transactions this coming quarter. As we generate additional lab scale and pilot scale material in 2027, we expect these MOU frameworks to evolve toward formal commercial agreements. And with that, I will turn it back over to the operator for the Q and A portion of the call. Operator? Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Brian Lee of Goldman Sachs. Go ahead please. Analyst (Brian Lee): Hey guys, this is Tyler Bisson on for Brian. Thanks for taking our questions. Appreciate all the color on the impact from the higher cost on the coal side. And so as you think out for the rest of the year, presumably, you are bringing back online some higher cost operations. So how do you think about your cost trends in the back half of the year can you just kind of walk us through some of the puts and takes there? Randall W. Atkins: Christopher, why do not you handle that? But Brian, I mean, I think effectively what we are bringing back online at the Berwind mine is not necessarily what I would describe as a high cost operation. it is actually 1 of our better cost products. So but Christopher, do not you go into a little bit more granularity? Christopher L. Blanchard: Yes. So obviously last year we did idle the Laurel Fork mine, which is the 1 that we have restarted in April. But it is only being restarted until the ventilation work I was describing is completed at the Berwind mine. We are using it as a staging ground to hire the workforce that will then be transferred over to Berwind so that we do not experience the same ramp up in production and hiring at Berwind that we normally would if we waited till September to start that section. So we would have that normal incremental while you have got the lower production ramp up at Berwind. We are just choosing to take that in advance. And it is a relatively small amount of tons that Laurel Fork will produce over April through August. So do not view that as impacting the cost probably $1 overall on the low vol side of the business. Then ultimately, when Berwind starts, that mine has historically been 1 of our lowest cost producers in the portfolio. Analyst (Brian Lee): Awesome. Super helpful. And then on the sales commitments, I know these represent about 90% of your production midpoint of guidance, but it is just 80% of the midpoint of your sales guidance. I guess what gives you confidence that you can book these incremental volumes to meet your sales guidance for the year? I guess, what are again, are some of the puts and takes here through the balance of the year? Randall W. Atkins: Sure. Jason, you want to take that? Jason T. Fannin: Yes, sure. Yes. Tyler, this is Jason. Certainly, we are seeing demand start to pick up already here. And I think a lot of that is just on the back of the various geographies steel markets improving. Certainly, we have seen some changes more incremental demand there. And then we are quite confident here in what we are seeing not coming out of China as far as demand we are starting to see into the Pacific. Particularly we talked about the Maben loadout firing up. We have actually got our first cargo of Maben going seaborne this quarter. Into the Pacific against PLB. So I think on both the high vol and the low vol sides there. Again, we are being prudent with the high vol, we are seeing demand start to pick up We just got to be smart about the pricing. Operator: Thanks, Brian. The next question comes from Jeffrey Grampp of Northland Capital Markets. Go ahead please. Jeffrey Grampp: Good morning, all. Thanks for the time. I was curious as it relates to potential offtake agreements or MOUs at Brook Mine. I mean, you guys cannot get into too much today, but curious if there is any particular products that are gaining more interest versus others, any that are more actionable in the near term? Thanks. Randy Atkins: Yes. Of course, as I said earlier, I do not want to tempt fate and get into too much specifics. But, I mean, I would say that the products in general that a number of our potential customers are focused on are gallium and scandium. Randall W. Atkins: So we were actually relatively pleased by the interest that we have gotten on scandium since that is been a subject of some criticism of our portfolio in the past. Jeffrey Grampp: Got it. Appreciate that. And for my follow-up, given the strong balance sheet that you guys have here, I am wondering your thoughts on M&A maybe even bifurcating that in terms of potential on the met coal side, given some of the kind of near term distress And then if there is anything on the critical minerals side that might be interesting. Randall W. Atkins: Sure. So as I have kind of quipped before on M&A, we are not too fond of the M, but we are happy to look at the A. And, you know, we have we opportunistically, you know, as part of frankly our DNA done acquisitions particularly of reserves that we felt were able to be opportunistic opportunistically acquired. We bought a large portfolio from Coronado here several months ago. We have done other purchases of similar note over the years. I think it is it is a bit becoming a more target rich environment, if you will call it that. And we are certainly out there looking Again, if we see anything that seems to make sense, we will pull the trigger. Again, assuming we can get it at an opportunistic price and the market conditions today would seem to dictate that there may be a few things that you could pick up on an advantage basis. Jeffrey Grampp: All right. Understood. Appreciate those comments. We will stay tuned. Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Soundarya Iyer of Baird. Go ahead please. Analyst: Hey, good morning, Thank you very much time and thank you for taking our questions. 2 for First, I know earlier this year you guys talked a bit about some backlogs at the national labs and some of the other third party testing sites. Just wondered if these have improved, have stayed the same or any other thoughts you could provide on outlook for this for the balance of the year? And then I have 1 follow-up. Randall W. Atkins: Sure. Well, I am going to let Mike go into granular detail. But 1 rather important thing is we are now starting to onboard testing our own facilities out at our research facility in Wyoming. So I am hopeful that, you know, as we get certainly more space out there, we will then be able to do a lot of the, at least, initial testing work ourselves out in Wyoming. Of course, once we get the pilot facility up and at them, then we will be doing a great deal of testing. But as far as third party groups, Mike, why do not you comment on that? Michael Woloschuk: Yeah. Look, it is still persisted as a challenge. I think there is a lot of activity happening in critical minerals domestically and the labs are full. So we identified this a couple of quarters ago and therefore, fitting out our own labs. So we expect to be doing our own testing and I think that will alleviate some of the challenges that the entire industry is facing with regards to lab capacity. Analyst: Super helpful. And thank you both for that. Maybe my second 1 and again fully acknowledge that more details are later to come this year. But maybe for you Randy, just wondering if you could talk a bit more about the strategy or the rationale for maybe to break things down in reorganization the way that you did? Maybe why you are doing it by assets versus by products? Or just any other thoughts on this specific methodology would be helpful. And thank you guys very much. Randall W. Atkins: Sure. You bet. So, I mean, as we started down this process of really having sort of a dual platform with 2 different, critical minerals. You know, coal is now a critical mineral as well, of course. But the rare earth and their adjacent critical minerals obviously are viewed in an entirely different light than the coal business. And needless to say, you go back and look at publicly traded companies in the rare earth space, they traded at a slightly different multiple than coal companies. So I think, ultimately, at some point, it would make sense to be able to unlock the value that we have in our various assets so that they could be ultimately separately valued in the marketplace as opposed to being in sort of a more conglomerate structure. You know, I growing up, I looked at a lot of conglomerates I remember they were very complicated, of course,, for analysts to be able to follow because they are completely different businesses in many cases, even though this all of our businesses are somewhat mining related certainly the processing aspects of the rare earth business are completely different than anything associated with the coal industry. And the other thing which is pretty unique, of course, is we unlike a lot of other companies, have a pretty substantial amount of reserve assets both in the coal as well as in the rare earth space. I mean, we have got a huge reserve base out in Wyoming, and there are frankly, not very many entities out there that, will be able to show sort of an income stream coming from unique assets like the coal and rare earth combined. So we think at some point although we trade now on sort of our B stock in similar fashion. We expect at some point to probably be able to sort of, drop down many of the infrastructure assets that we have got. In both the East and the West. Into this platform. And if could be a very compelling royalty play. So that is that is kind of the thinking certainly on that particular aspect of it. The refinery business, very different business, of course. Trades at different multiples. it is it is more of a commoditized business. Certainly from a CapEx standpoint, that will be the highest ticket of all of our development efforts. We will not have the numbers nailed down until we publish something independently from Hatch later next month. But you can assume that a rare earth processing facility is a high ticket capital expenditure. And then of course, the mining and sales aspects that we will do out west will again be very similar in concept and conduct. To what we do out east. So I think we will have a an interesting blend of different entities. We do not have any specific plans at this point. You know, other than getting everything sort of set up and put into separate categories and separate entities. But that then provides us the optionality to decide, later on what is the most advantaged way to value for our shareholders. Because I think we have got a number of different assets I think could provide some really compelling value to our shareholders as we move forward. Analyst: that is great. You very much. I will pass it on. Operator: The next question comes from Carlos De Alba of Morgan Stanley. Go ahead please. Carlos de Alba: Yes, thank you very much. Good morning everyone. I just wanted to see if you could maybe drill down a little bit more on the rationale to separate the in the restructuring that you are doing and to separate the Ramaco refining business for the Brook Mine critical mineral feedstocks and the Ramaco critical minerals. Given that presumably they are fairly integrated operations? Randall W. Atkins: Yeah. So great question, Carlos. I to take a stab at that in addressing the last comment. But again, the refining aspect of critical minerals as you well know is an entirely different breed of cat than the sort of processing aspect that relates to the coal business. So I think kind of including and wrapping the refining together the mining and sales, conceivably, is mixing 2 different type of operations, which again could trade at different types of multiples if they were you know, freestanding operations. So I think, you know, providing a platform for rare earth sales and mining is gonna be 1 platform that I think will be pretty clean. Understand. And I think then the refining, business sort of segregated into a separate entity provides us some different ways to look at both financing at, but also operating it. So I think it gives us some options that we are now seriously pursuing on a number of different fronts, which I cannot really get into. Okay. We will we will wait for further details down the road. Carlos de Alba: And then maybe another 1 is relating to the term thermal coal mining within the Brook Mine. This is a very important byproduct that will help the economics of the project. Can you give us any update on customer discussions and off takes or MOUs for that thermal coal volume? Randall W. Atkins: Yes. We are now and of course, we are happy to have Jason touch on that as well. We are discussing right now, with a number of utility groups potential offtakes. We are even exploring longer term some possible avenues for being able to make on-site use of the thermal coal in some manner. Which I will not get into right now, but that could be interesting. But I think, you know, as it relates to the actual mining you know, we do not really wanna engage in full scale mining right now even though we would be able presumably to move a thermal product because, you know, what we do not wanna do is have large stock piles of you know, critical mineral feedstock, which we will not be able to effectively process until we have our actually, of course, a commercial facility. So, you know, we are we are setting ourselves up to be able to have the thermal coal moved at sort of in sequence and in sync with our critical mineral processing and mining operations. And as you well point out, needless to say, you know, our economics out there are interesting because, you know, what would typically be waste in a critical mineral operation In our case, the byproduct, of course, is coal. And we are able to sell that at, economics even based on current thermal prices, which would, in essence, pretty much pay for all the mining for all the products. Inclusive of the critical minerals. Great. Thank you very much. Operator: Thank you, Carlos. The next question comes from Nathan Martin of The Benchmark Company. Go ahead please. Nathan Martin: Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone. Really just a clarification question to start. You guys previously called the expected been your report from Hatch, the preliminary economic analysis. Now you are referring to it as a revised conceptual study, maybe no difference, but just wanted to make sure, is there any anticipated change in the data we should expect from the report? Randall W. Atkins: Short and long answer is that you can expect no change in what the data that will be developed in the report. It will have the same sort of commercial and technical feasibility that was developed when the Fluor report was put out last year under the solvent extraction technique. The change in nomenclature is candidly from a compliance standpoint to keep in regulatory formality with the SK-1.3 thousand. Which the SEC has suggested that, you know, the way that these studies be described should be done as a conceptual study as opposed to the prior nomenclature, which was called a PEA. Nathan Martin: Okay. Got it, Randy. Appreciate that. Maybe, Jason, question for you. You gave us a lot of good detail, I think, your expected sales the rest of the year. I might have missed this, but again, you guys mentioned the lower net pack realizations on export sales into Asia. The first quarter caused by the elevated freight rates. What portion of your remaining sales do you expect to be sold on a CFR basis? And could possibly impact trade rates as well if they remain higher? Jason T. Fannin: Yeah. Yeah. Nate, this is Jason. Thanks. So we actually typically sell very little on CFR basis, But where we saw the impact for us going into The Pacific was on recognized freight there versus the Australian shipments. It certainly did. We had several good pricing mechanisms in Q1 set up in advance of the uranium conflict. And once we start to see the impacts of that, it was baked into the overall mechanism that is where we saw the hit. And then certainly, again, given the fact that we had 1 large shipment slip out of the very end of the quarter there at this point, impacted us as well there. And typically, also Q1 is our usually our lower domestic sales in terms of total volume out the door. So all those things kind of came together there and that impact on that pricing. Nathan Martin: Okay. And then you mentioned domestic, Jason. I did see your domestic tonnage remained at 1.1 million tons but I think pricing was down about $4 versus last quarter. Anything specific you could talk about that drove that change? And then you know, do you expect any additional domestic sales thus far with, you know, a little bit of open tonnage still out there? Jason T. Fannin: Yes, sure. So on your first question here on pricing change, so nothing's changed there in terms of the customers, the structures, all that sort of thing. We are marking some certain fees differently than we had before, just to get better apples to apples pricing comparisons within our book. And that is the entirety of that change on that overall price on the domestic side. And then, yes, on the pickup in the domestics, we have seen a couple points of interest. You can suspect on the high vol side, just given from operations that have either already shut down or curtailing or in the process of shutting down. So obviously, we view that as a positive sign. Elk Creek has an excellent reputation in the domestic market and we typically get 1 of the first phone calls when folks need eyeball and we are seeing that already. So we see that as very positive certainly for the second half. Nathan Martin: All right. Very helpful. I will pass it on. Appreciate the time, and best of luck. Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Soundarya Iyer of B. Riley Securities. Go ahead please. Analyst (Nick): This is actually Nick on from B. Riley. First question was just sorry if I missed this in the prepared remarks, but I wanted to ask if you could just provide a breakdown of CapEx, or break out the met coal CapEx between sustaining and growth And then on the growth side, what is baked in today? And what other levers do you have to ultimately increase low vol exposure and just what that capital intensity looks like? Thanks. Jeremy Ryan Sussman: Jeremy Ryan Sussman: I will take that. Yes. Hey, Soundarya. So when we think of our CapEx guidance for the year, it is pretty close to, you know, 50 in terms of I will call it, maintenance on the, on the coal front and then growth on both the coal and the rare earth and critical minerals front. So I would use about 10 to $11 a ton on the coal side. So let's call it about $45 million of maintenance capital and then another 20 million or so for our low vol growth this year, which is obviously the third section at Berwind and then the rail loadout at Maben with, of course, the remaining for you know, for rare earths. On the you know, on the growth side, I think as you noted, you know, our focus on the coal front is really on the low vol side. So know, that is ultimately taking the Berwind, mine up to 4 sections. And should we again, should we choose to go that route, we can go underground at the Maben Complex, which would add up to another million and a half tons. All of this is market dependent. We are starting to see some positive signs ahead. And certainly, as, you know, we move throughout the year and start budgeting for 2027, you know, these are obviously things we will take a hard look at. Randall W. Atkins: Yep. And I think just to sort of add a code to what Jeremy said, you know, Jason mentioned we have got 1 of our Maben shipments that is now going seaborne this quarter, which we think is important because to the extent we can establish the Maben brand overseas, that will be an important market for, you know, volumes on low vol that are gonna be much higher than we have historically experienced. So, we view that very positively. And, you know, we are we are certainly, in a liquidity position, of course, to initiate the Maben and deep expansion. Just as soon as we think we have got a sufficient clarity on market signals that give us comfort that once we put it in, we are gonna have a strong market once we start actual full commercial production. Analyst (Nick): Got it. Thanks for that. Guys. And maybe just 1 more clarifying 1. I think I heard 15% was PLV-linked of met shipments this quarter. Could that go in Q2? And then where should we expect that to settle when Berwind, you know, kinda ramps up later this year? Randall W. Atkins: Jason, you want to take that? Jason T. Fannin: Yes, sure. So yes, Nick, this is Jason. Q2, right now we are projecting on basis that is committed about 25% of exports basis PLV, think that is maybe just slightly over 20% of overall volumes. And still with obviously a few tons out there still to place in Q2, which we will look to that market. In the back half what I can say, few things. 1, we inked a term high-vol deal very, very late in Q1. That just started against PLB that will flow through the entire year. So we will see the impact more of that Q2 and in the back half. Randy and I both mentioned the Maben trial here we got this quarter, we are we are hopeful that, that leads to more business. On that front. And then also we are currently in negotiations, I can say, with 1 large firm customer on the LV link business to add additional cargoes in the second half. So based on where we sit here today, would expect it to increase. it is just hard to put a number on that. Right now. Analyst (Nick): Got it. No, that is very helpful, Jason. I appreciate it. Just 1 more if I could. Just when we think about the Carbochlorination process, As you build IP around this, I mean, patent protection ultimately around, something chemistry related, or is it the application to call hosted material Just trying to get a sense for, you know, what you would ultimately protect against and just as some of your peers are exploring processing as well. Thanks. Randall W. Atkins: Sure. So, yeah, I will let Mike go into somewhat more detail. But suffice to say that our IP projections are both designed to be broad and all encompassing So it would include all of the areas that you would just articulated, anything that we can regard as trade secrets, you know, we will be protecting because I think you know, what we are gonna have is a pretty unique process which may ultimately be able to be utilized, certainly not only with respect to our coal, but other coals and other coal related products. So it, if we get it perfected, it is a pretty good mousetrap. And, that is why, once again, when I commented that we are gonna have some very interesting things that we think are gonna be sort of downloaded into our Ramaco royalty entity, that includes potential IP income that would flow from those which I think over time could be a very impactful bit of income to us. Randall W. Atkins: Mike, do you want to go into any more comment there on the on IP side? Michael Woloschuk: As it relates to more of the specifics on the processes themselves. Yes. I would just add that you touched on a couple of things. Rare earths and critical minerals in coal and carbonaceous clays Definitely, we want to lock this technology up The IP is also around the extraction and around some of those critical minerals. So the beauty of this deposit is we are not purchasing a reagent. We have it there, and it is mineralized. So if you have to purchase coal as a reagent, or carbon for this reaction, we are producing it at a fraction of the cost and we are generating a significant amount of our critical minerals from the coal itself. So that is what the IP is around. Analyst (Nick): Got it. Thanks for that, Mike. that is more clear. I appreciate it. Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Randall W. Atkins, Chairman and CEO, for any closing remarks. Randall W. Atkins: Sure. Well, first of all, of course, I want to thank everyone for joining us today. As we commented earlier, we expect probably by the end of next month certainly, maybe just slipping into July; for the Weir report, but we will certainly receive something from both Hatch and Weir, which we regard as a pretty significant milestone. At that point, we are considering probably coming back into the market to have a separate call, which will be both disclosed in written form, and we probably will consider also having somewhat of a separate and unique call, which will certainly be able to entertain questions from, both analysts and shareholders on. So we would expect that to happen sometime probably in July would be my expectation, but this would be before our Q2 earnings call, which we would expect to probably happen in early August. So with that, I thank everybody again for being on the call today, and we will look forward to, our next catch up. Thank you very much. Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Ramaco Resources, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Ramaco Resources wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $460,826!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,345,285!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 983% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 207% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 12, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Ramaco (METC) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Interested in Ramaco Resources, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Ramaco is leaning on its strong balance sheet to buy back stock while still funding coal and rare earth development. The company has repurchased about 2.6 million shares this year, leaving roughly $63 million under its $100 million authorization and nearly $500 million in liquidity. First-quarter results were pressured by weak coal pricing despite solid cost control. Adjusted EBITDA came in at a $1.8 million loss as realized prices fell to $114 per ton, though cash costs stayed below $100 per ton for the third straight quarter. Brook Mine and low-vol coal projects remain central to growth as Ramaco advances rare earth studies, drilling, and pilot plant plans while also expanding low-vol production. The company expects more tons from Laurel Fork and Berwind, and it is pursuing a restructuring to better separate its coal and critical minerals businesses. These 3 Rare Earth Stocks Are Surging Alongside MP Materials Ramaco Resources (NASDAQ:METC) executives said the company is using a stronger balance sheet to repurchase shares while continuing to fund metallurgical coal projects and development work tied to its Brook Mine rare earth and critical minerals opportunity. On the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call, Chairman and CEO Randy Atkins said Ramaco has repurchased about 2.6 million shares of its Class A common stock so far this year at an average price of about $14.50 per share. That represents about 5% of its stock. Atkins said the company still has about $63 million of remaining authorization under the $100 million buyback plan approved last year. → Beyond NVIDIA: Picks-and-Shovels AI Plays with Strong Momentum Ramaco Resources Pins Hopes on Coal's Untapped Potential “As a dual-platform company, we’re currently seeing very little value in our stock price that reflects our rare earth or other critical mineral assets,” Atkins said. He added that Ramaco would continue to evaluate whether additional repurchases are a prudent use of cash. Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Sussman said Ramaco ended the first quarter with nearly $500 million in liquidity, which Atkins described as about $490 million and up about 310% year over year. Sussman said the company’s liquidity gives it the flexibility to invest in coal and rare earth projects while continuing to opportunistically repurchase shares. → MercadoLibre Boldly Invests in Growth: Discount Deepens Ramaco’s first-quarter adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $1.8 million, compared with adjusted EBITDA of $10 million in the first quarter of 2025. Sussman said Class A earnings per share showed a loss of $0.30 in the quarter, compared with a loss of $0.19 in the year-earlier period. The company reported cash costs per ton sold of $98, which Sussman said placed Ramaco in the first quartile of the U.S. cash cost curve among its Central Appalachian metallurgical coal peers. Atkins said it was the third consecutive quarter with cash costs below $100 per ton. → 3 Ways to Target the Resources Powering AI and Data Centers However, cash margins declined to $16 per ton from $24 per ton a year earlier. Sussman attributed the decrease to lower realized prices of $114 per ton, compared with $122 per ton in the first quarter of 2025. He said domestic high-vol metallurgical coal markets remain weak, even as Australian benchmark pricing improved year over year. Atkins said the company’s quarterly miss was “all top line,” citing weak coal pricing, especially for high-vol coal. He also said fuel costs have risen sharply amid the conflict involving Iran, with rack pricing for fuel products reaching as high as $5.45 per gallon across Ramaco’s operations, up from about $2.50 at the end of last year. Atkins said that, based on the company’s usage, each $1 per gallon increase in diesel fuel adds about $1.50 per ton to costs on an annualized basis. Executives said Ramaco is maintaining discipline in high-vol production while investing in low-vol metallurgical coal growth. Atkins said the company restarted its Laurel Fork Mine in the prior quarter and plans to add a third section at its Berwind Mine this summer. At full production, those projects are expected to add 100,000 to 200,000 tons of low-vol coal in 2026 and about 500,000 additional tons in 2027. Chris Blanchard, executive vice president for mine planning and development, said the company has moderated production from its Elk Creek Complex because of poor high-vol coal pricing. He said Ramaco may make further reductions during the year if market conditions warrant. At Berwind, Blanchard said the first of two new air shafts is nearing completion, with both expected online by late August. The ventilation upgrade is expected to allow the mine to ramp with another full super section and increase production to 900,000 to 1 million clean tons annually. At the Maven low-vol complex, Ramaco has started work on a Norfolk Southern rail load-out project. Blanchard said all major materials have been procured and excavation is underway. The unit train load-out is expected to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of 2026, eliminating trucking logistics costs from Maven. Atkins said the load-out is expected to save about $20 per ton on trucking costs and gives the company more flexibility as it evaluates the timing of a potential 1.5 million ton Maven underground mine project. Chief Commercial Officer Jason Fannin said Ramaco has secured commitments for 3.5 million tons in 2026, representing about 90% of planned annual production at the midpoint. Domestic customers account for 1.1 million tons at an average fixed price of $138 per ton. Export commitments total 2.4 million tons, including 1 million tons at an average fixed price of $107 per ton and 1.4 million tons tied to index-based pricing. Fannin said first-quarter realized pricing was slightly lower quarter over quarter despite broader benchmark strength because Ramaco’s sales were tied to specific geographies and indices, and because of non-recurring operational headwinds. Severe weather disrupted CSX and Norfolk Southern rail networks in January and February, delaying some shipments, including higher-priced domestic specialty orders and a PLV-linked export shipment that slipped into the second quarter. For the second quarter, Sussman said Ramaco expects shipments of 900,000 to 1 million tons. He said cash costs are expected to be toward the higher end of the company’s full-year range because of elevated fuel costs. Fannin said the company is optimistic about an improved metallurgical coal market in the second half of 2026, citing stronger steel market conditions in the U.S. and Europe, projected growth in India crude steel production, lower Chinese steel exports through April and expected high-vol supply contraction. Executives also detailed progress on the company’s Brook Mine rare earth and critical minerals project in Wyoming. Atkins said Ramaco is awaiting a revised conceptual study from Hatch, expected in late June, and a technical geological report summary from Weir to follow. Both analyses are based on the company’s new patent-pending carbochlorination processing technique. Mike Woloschuk, executive vice president of critical mineral operations, said key engineering deliverables for the Hatch study were completed in the first quarter. He said Ramaco identified opportunities to increase chlorine recycling and expects additional opportunities to be included in the final study report. Woloschuk said Ramaco completed 33 drill holes totaling more than 9,300 feet of core in the quarter, including 27 infill holes and six water monitoring holes. Since the program began, the company has drilled 174 holes and 35,000 feet of core. He said four drill rigs are currently on site and drilling is expected to continue through year-end. Construction of the pilot plant building is expected to be complete in late summer or early fall, with fabricated interior equipment installation beginning this fall and full pilot operations starting in 2027. Woloschuk said Ramaco is also building out an internal geometallurgical laboratory at its iCAM facility to increase testing volume and reduce reliance on external labs. Atkins said advanced discussions are continuing with domestic and overseas groups regarding potential offtake transactions and non-dilutive third-party financings. In response to an analyst question, he said gallium and scandium are among the products drawing interest from potential customers. Atkins said Ramaco has taken legal and accounting steps toward a reorganization intended to better reflect its coal and critical minerals platforms. The company has formed separate entities within a holding company structure under parent Ramaco Resources. Ramaco Royalty will hold mineral reserves, infrastructure, intellectual property rights and related income-producing assets, including metallurgical and thermal coal reserves and rare earth and critical minerals. Ramaco Critical Mineral Resources will house Brook Mine rare earth, critical minerals and thermal coal mining, production and sales operations. Ramaco Refining will hold the carbochlorination separation facilities planned to process Brook Mine critical mineral feedstocks into oxides and mixed rare earth carbonate. Atkins said the restructuring is intended to enhance shareholder value and provide more operational and financial flexibility. He said Ramaco expects to have the pieces of the reorganization in place during the second half of the year. Ramaco Resources, Inc (NASDAQ:METC) is a U.S.-based producer of premium metallurgical coal and industrial minerals, focused on supplying the steel and allied industries. The company’s operations are centered in the Appalachian region of West Virginia, where it develops, mines and processes high-carbon coal products designed to meet the quality requirements of blast‐furnace and electric‐arc furnace steelmakers. The firm’s flagship asset is the Elk Creek underground mine in Wyoming County, West Virginia, which began commercial production in 2019 and delivers a range of high‐grade metallurgical and anthracite coals. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Ramaco Resources Q1 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. 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This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Share Repurchase: Repurchased 2.6 million shares of Class A common stock at an average price of $14.50 per share. Liquidity: Ended the first quarter with approximately $490 million in liquidity, up 310% year-over-year. Cash Costs: Maintained cash costs under $100 per ton for the third consecutive quarter. Cash Margins: Q1 cash margins of $16 per ton, down from $24 per ton in Q1 2025. Realized Prices: Q1 realized prices of $114 per ton, compared to $122 per ton in Q1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA: Q1 adjusted EBITDA was -$1.8 million, compared to $10 million in Q1 2025. EPS: Class A EPS showed a $0.30 loss in Q1 versus a $0.19 loss in Q1 2025. Production Guidance: Reiterated all key 2026 operational guidance, including production, tons sold, and cash costs. Sales Commitments: Secured commitments for 3.5 million tons, representing about 90% of planned annual production. Domestic Sales: 1.1 million tons at an average fixed price of $138 per ton. Export Sales: 2.4 million tons, with 1 million tons at an average fixed price of $107 per ton and 1.4 million tons on index-linked pricing. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 10 Warning Signs with METC. Is METC fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: May 12, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Ramaco Resources Inc (NASDAQ:METC) repurchased approximately 2.6 million shares of Class A common stock, representing about 5% of its stock, indicating strong shareholder return and capital allocation strategy. The company ended the first quarter with about $490 million in liquidity, up 310% year-over-year, providing significant financial flexibility. Operational performance remained solid with cash costs per ton sold at $98, placing Ramaco in the first quartile of the US cash cost curve among Central Appalachian met coal peers. Ramaco is advancing its rare earth element and critical minerals projects, with significant progress expected in the second half of 2026. The company is exploring reorganization options to enhance shareholder value and better reflect its dual-platform business model, including the formation of separate corporate entities for different operations. The company reported a Q1 adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.8 million, compared to a $10 million gain in Q1 2025, reflecting challenging market conditions. Cash margins fell from $24 per ton in Q1 2025 to $16 per ton in Q1 2026 due to lower realized prices. High diesel prices, exacerbated by the Iranian conflict, negatively impacted costs by approximately $1.50 per ton sold. The coal market remains challenged, particularly on the high-vol side, with unsustainably weak pricing indices. Weather-related transportation issues negatively impacted sales figures by more than 50,000 tons in the first quarter. Q: As you think out for the rest of the year, how do you view your cost trends, especially with higher cost operations coming back online? A: Chris Blanchard, EVP for Mine Planning and Development, explained that the Berwind Mine, which is being brought back online, is not a high-cost operation but rather one of their better cost products. The Laurel Fork Mine, restarted in April, is being used to stage workforce for Berwind, and its impact on costs is expected to be minimal. Q: What gives you confidence that you can book incremental volumes to meet your sales guidance for the year? A: Jason Fannin, Chief Commercial Officer, expressed confidence due to improving demand in various geographies, particularly in Europe and the Pacific. The Maben load-out is operational, and the first cargo is going seaborne this quarter, which should help meet sales guidance. Q: Are there any particular products from the Brook Mine that are gaining more interest for potential offtake agreements? A: Randall Atkins, CEO, noted that gallium and scandium are attracting significant interest from potential customers, which is encouraging given past criticisms of their portfolio. Q: Can you provide an update on customer discussions and offtakes for the thermal coal volume from the Brook Mine? A: Randall Atkins mentioned ongoing discussions with utility groups for potential offtakes and exploring on-site use of thermal coal. They aim to align thermal coal sales with critical mineral processing and mining operations to optimize economics. Q: Could you clarify the expected mid-year report from Hatch and its implications? A: Randall Atkins clarified that the report, now termed a revised conceptual study, will provide the same commercial and technical feasibility data as the previous PEA. The change in nomenclature aligns with SEC compliance requirements. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.