February 22, 2025 - In just over a month since emerging as a company, Core Natural Resources leadership says it has made tremendous strides including a 37-million-ton commitment from the Powder River Basin. 

According to the first quarterly earnings report from the newly formed Core Natural Resources, which emerged from the successful merger of Consol Energy and Arch Resources, the company started the year with $1.1 billion in liquidity, including cash and cash equivalents as well as short-term investments. 

Before the merger’s close, Consol purchased Arch Resources’ outstanding tax-exempt bonds for $98.1 million with the intent of remarketing them at a later date as market conditions allow, per Core. 

The company anticipates merger-related expenses to come in around $100 million in 2025 and forecasts additional expenditures of $30 million relating to a fire at the company’s Leer South Mine in West Virginia. Total capital expenditures for 2025 could come in as high as $330 million, Core says. 

Core President and CFO Mitesh Thakkar says that even with the projected expenditures, the company expects to have excess cash available to deploy to the capital return program during 2025. 

“In addition, we expect the continued progress in synergy capture, along with the remarketing of the tax-exempt bonds, to provide a tailwind in terms of projected cash availability,” Thakkar said in a statement. 

Core has two principal lines of business — metallurgical and thermal coal, both of which are currently experiencing soft market conditions at the time of the earnings report. Per Core, APA-2 and High Vol-A coking coal are both trading at close to a three-year low. 

In the company’s high calorific value segment, Core’s committed position combined with relatively advantaged pricing is counterbalancing the impacts of a soft market, according to the report, which says the company has committed 24 million tons of High CV thermal coal at $63 per ton. 

From the Powder River Basin, the company has committed 36.9 million tons of coal priced at $14.78 per ton with an average cash cost of $14 per ton, according to the report. 

Core CEO Paul A. Lang said the company has managed to make tremendous strides in unlocking value across a wide range of fronts in the month following the merger. 

“Looking ahead, we are more confident than ever that Core’s two, world-class, complementary operating segments — metallurgical coal and high calorific value thermal coal — create a unique and compelling opportunity for value creation and cash generation in the years ahead,” Lang said in a statement. 

According to Lang, Core is exceptionally well-equipped to capitalize on what it views to be a highly constructive, durable, long-term global market environment for its core products.