Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Yancoal Australia Financial Results First Half 2023 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. To remove yourself from the queue, simply press star one one again. As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. Now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, David Moult, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Jonathan, thank you to everyone on the call for joining this briefing on Yancoal's performance in the first half of 2023. Slides two and three contain notice and disclaimers relevant to today's presentation. Please make yourself familiar with the content of these two slides. The first aspect of the first half performance we need to acknowledge is the remarkable improvement in our safety performance. Strong operational and financial results are built upon workplace culture and a positive safety mindset. Over the past six months, our key safety metric improved considerably, reducing by 44%. An outcome that is only possible when people across all our mines embrace the safety initiatives and work cohesively to deliver tangible performance improvements. The production figures, while good when viewed in a half-year basis, don't convey the momentum building across the mines.
Our people have worked tirelessly through two years of adversity. Last year, they capitalized on record coal prices and delivered the EBITDA. This year, we are continuing to implement our mine recovery plans to return output to levels we achieved in past years. Pleasingly, our second quarter sellable production increased by more over the first quarter, demonstrating the effectiveness of these plans, also aided by the improved weather. We are looking for further production gains in the second half of the year. Our average realized coal price for the half year was AUD 278 per tonne. Excluding last year, 2022, this is more than double the average received for the four years to 2021. Cash operating costs of AUD 109 per tonne, reflecting inflationary factors, the mine recovery work, and lower output.
Despite this, the implied operating cash margin was still AUD 144 per tonne. The realized price and operating margin are reflected in the AUD 4 billion in revenue and AUD 1.8 billion EBITDA we reported for the first half. After repaying the last of our loans in March, paying over AUD 900 million in dividends in April, AUD 1.7 billion in taxes, we still held AUD 1.1 billion of cash at the end of June. The board has elected to return a further AUD 400 million to shareholders as a fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.37 per share. As I mentioned a moment ago, keeping our workforce safe is our first priority. The Total Reportable Injury Frequency Rate was trending down during 2022, but has almost halved to 4.4 over the last six months.
We're now aiming to maintain this level by embedding the gains made through the various programs and technologies implemented across the mines. Like our effort with safety, our focus on sustainability is continuing and ongoing. We are chasing immediate gains through upgrades to our mining fleets and actively in exploring future opportunities in the renewable energy sector. As a company, dedicated team to develop the Yancoal sustainability strategy and sign three Aboriginal cultural heritage conservation agreements at MTW. Slide seven summarizes the operational drivers behind Yancoal's first half, 2023 performance. As usual, we have provided a comparison against the same period last year. This is not a like-for-like comparison, because in 2022, the priority was minimizing production losses caused by the wet weather to capitalize on the high coal price.
The production in 2022 came at the expense of the advanced mining activities that allow mines to sustain output and cost profiles. This year, and most noted, notably in the first quarter, we shifted our priority to rebuilding the mining inventory. It is a short-term trade-off required to deliver improved productivity in the coming quarters and years. Cash operating costs were inflated by the low production in the first quarter, AUD 109 per tonne for the, for the half, to us, is not acceptable. Cost control has always been a core aspect of Yancoal's operating mindset, and driving the per tonne cost down over the coming quarters is a top priority. Looking at the coal markets, there was record demand in 2022 for thermal coal, over 8.3 billion tons globally.
The IEA saw further demand growth over the past six months and expects total demand this year to match the 2022 level. In Australia, production is recovering from the persistent rain disruptions over recent years, and output is rising from other key supply countries. Balancing this supply growth is the likely reduction in output that was incentivized by record prices in 2022, but that increase in is no longer viable in the current price environment. Price differentials between coal indices returning to more normal levels and the resumption of Australian coal imports by China, as they provide a competitive advantage to large-scale, low-cost producers like Yancoal. The metallurgical coal indices started the year with momentum that has since stalled as the steel market conditions weakened.
Across the thermal coal demand factors appear relatively balanced at this time, leaving seasonal or short-term drivers to influence coal prices in the near to medium term. Yancoal continued to adapt to the evolving thermal coal market conditions the first half of 2023. We retained core customers in Asia and resumed sales into China as demand from European and Indian-based customers fell away. The preservation of relationships with our metallurgical coal customers throughout 2022 proved an effective strategy. The premiums for these products over our thermal products have returned, and our coal sales mix remains consistent with prior periods. Yancoal remains the third largest coal producer in Australia. Our attributable thermal coal production was 12% of the national total last year. Three large-scale, low-cost mines are the core of our business.
These mines produce complementary coal products, which our marketing and operations teams can blend to best meet international market requirements. Returning production to levels achieved previously and bringing our cash operating costs down, will maintain our competitive advantage in the industry. Total ROM coal on a 100% basis increased by 5% to 26 million tons in the first half. This included a 32% increase in the second quarter over the first quarter, as mine recovery plans began to take effect and productivity improved. The open-cut mines in New South Wales are still working through water storage reduction initiatives. Fortunately, the outlook is for relatively dry conditions through the remainder of the year. This should aid our drive to increase production output in the second half of the year.
Our attributable saleable coal production also showed a modest uplift, increasing to 14.4 million tons, up from the low recorded in the second half of 2022. As is typically the case, our three largest open-cut mines drove the production performance for the group during the period. As I have mentioned during the call, the rebuild of mining inventory is a priority for Yancoal through 2023, and was a high priority in the first half. If we don't rebuild the mining inventory, our mines will not deliver product in prior periods, and total output will not recover to the levels we delivered in recent years. Cash operating costs of $109 per tonne may have been consistent with the second half of last year, level we are comfortable with, and we fully intend to drive costs lower.
Although it is not apparent looking at the data for the half year, there was a positive trend from first quarter to second quarter in the cost profile as production volumes recovered. The ongoing production recovery we anticipate through the second half of the year can drive per tonne cash operating costs. Unfortunately, there are still cost inflationary factors such as diesel prices, explosives, electricity, and parts that remain embedded in our cost base and may prove difficult to fully unwind. Nonetheless, we intend to return to our position at the low end of the operating cost curve, where we see our natural competitive advantage. Although cash operating costs remained elevated, the implied operating cash margin of AUD 144 per tonne is still a favorable outcome.
State royalties may have declined from the second half of 2022, in line with the lower coal prices, but AUD 25 per tonne remains significantly higher than prior years. We expect per tonne cash operating costs to reduce as the production profile recovers through the second half of 2023. The rate of decline remains subject to many factors, some of which we cannot control. Reestablishing our large-scale, low-cost production profile enables us to operate throughout all points in the coal price cycle. Our operational expectations for the year have not changed from the guidance we provided in February. We are still aiming for 31 million-36 million tons of attributable saleable production at a cash operating cost of between AUD 92 and AUD 102 per tonne.
We have revised down our capital expenditure guidance to AUD 600 million-AUD 750 million, primarily reflecting the slippage of spend into 2024. Overall, capital expenditure includes the fleet replacement cycle we commenced in 2021, as well as additional equipment we secured to accelerate the mine recovery plans. Throughout the year, we will continually balance volume, product quality, efficiency metrics, operating costs, and capital expenditure, as we aim to deliver the best possible outcomes for our shareholders. Slide 17 provides an overview of Yancoal's first half 2023 financial performance. The key line items from the income statement may have reduced from the first half of 2022. However, the financial performance in the first half of 2023 remains elevated when compared to all other prior periods.
When looking at the cash flow statement, initially, the operating cash flow of AUD 89 million appears low. Please note, this is after the AUD 1.7 billion tax payments we have completed during the period, most of which related to the record earnings recorded. As noted at the start of the call, we held over AUD 1 billion in cash at the end of the period. This is after making the 2022 final dividend payment, the final loan repayment, and the tax payment just mentioned during the past six months. The two charts on this slide show the correlation between realized price, operating EBITDA, and the operating EBITDA margin. This correlation results from relatively stable production and operating cost profile that Yancoal maintains, with the obvious exception of the higher costs in recent periods I have already identified.
The operating EBITDA of $1.8 billion and the EBITDA margin of 46% only appear modest in comparison to recent periods. These are still remarkably robust figures. The profit after tax and operating cash flow tend to replicate the revenue and EBITDA profiles. The step change in the operating cash flow incorporates the tax payment I mentioned in the earlier slide. In fact, it was only in mid-2022 when we finally recouped all the prior year tax losses incurred, and we commenced paying cash tax. The positive aspect of paying cash tax is the generation of franking credits. The board elected to repay the last of our interest-bearing loans during the half year and have repaid more than $2.7 billion of loans since late 2021.
The loan repayments made over the past two years will save the group almost AUD 200 million in finance costs this year alone. This is cash that can be applied to better alternate uses. The small difference between the cash position of AUD 1.1 billion and the net cash position of AUD 900 million is primarily lease liabilities on mining equipment. Once again, returning cash to shareholders via dividends is a primary use of Yancoal's excess cash. The board has allocated AUD 489 million to the 2023 interim dividend. This is AUD 0.37 per share, a notional 8% yield when calculated on the 30 June share price of AUD 4.58. The other important point to note is that, like the 2022 final dividend, the 2023 interim dividend is fully franked.
Yancoal expects to continue amassing franking credits as it pays tax in future periods. Including the interim dividend, Yancoal has declared over AUD 3 billion in dividends in the past two years. The remainder of the slides contain appendices and additional information for reference. I don't intend to speak to them today. I will now hand back to Jonathan, so that we can commence the question and answer session.
Certainly. As once again, ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you do have a question that you'd like to ask, a live audio question, please press star 11 on your telephone. At the moment, I'm not showing any questions from the phone lines.
Okay, thanks, Jonathan. I can see several questions coming through on the webcast. I'll start with the webcast questions, and I can see that some of the questions involve some duplication, people submitting things of a, a similar nature, similar topics. I'll amalgamate questions for, as I see best appropriate, to cover up all the, the queries. Just before we start, David mentioned that there are appendices at the end of the presentation pack. This includes slides which show overviews of the mining assets, the, the reserves and resources, those types of figures for people who wanna gain a, a background on the, the breadth and scope of Yancoal, who may be less familiar with the company. Looking at one of the first questions coming, we're talking, or we're asked about the future of Yancoal Australia and ongoing contracts for the coming years.
I'm gonna interpret that, that as the, the production outlook, the production profile going forward in the, the coal markets and the contracts exposures we'll be taking into the four years, as much as we can speak to those topics. David, could you provide some comments?
Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Brendan. I think looking forward, I mean, we, we are very happy that our market diversity over the last few years has brought a breadth of of customers now over many, many countries, and you can see that in the presentation. It is good to have China back into our mix of of supply, sorry, of countries that we are supplying. As you'll see with the percentages in, in, again, in the presentation, that we have started to move back into China in, in, in, I consider some of the ground we lost over the last couple of years.
What I might do, though, is hand over to Mark Salem to add any other comments on the contract side as we go forward. Mark?
Yeah, thanks, David. Yeah, this is Mark Salem speaking. Look, in, in relation to our contract position moving forward, I can say that Yancoal has got a very good reputation in the marketplace, and we are very well contracted with the major buyers in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China. We, we will continue to develop those markets as well as other markets in the developing nations. Our contract portfolio, many of which is under term contracts and many of which is under evergreen annual renewable contracts. Because of our reputation and our coal quality, we don't envisage there to be any risk to that business.
Thanks, Mark. Looking through the question list, there's one here from Sara Chan at Morgan Stanley. There's several components to the question. It seems to tie in with some of the commentary we've just provided. The elements of interest, the washing yield, could we provide any commentary on the, the yield across the assets? Then a, a broader question leading into market conditions: Is there any commentary related to the recent Australian LNG strikes and the potential impact or flow-through effect that may be relevant to the coal markets which we serve? Handing to you first, David.
Thanks, Brendan. The yields we achieve at, they vary quite considerably across the different mines and depending on what products we're producing at the mine. I don't have all those yields in front of me at the moment, but we get reasonable real- yields, at, at all operations. Of course, we do wash occasionally harder, and you'll have heard us talking about this over the last couple of years, to take advantage of better quality coal, which reduces yields at, at, at times. There is quite a diversity of yields, across our mines. I'm sure, Brendan, his contact details are available there, and if you needed a bit more guidance on, on what those numbers look like, I'm sure Brendan can provide that after the call.
On, on the second comment, Mark, I thought I might throw that to you and ask for your opinion on, on what's happening in the market with the, with this LNG strike.
Sure, sure. Thanks, David. Look, there was some movement, very small movement in the market over the LNG strikes in Australia. Australia only supplies a very small portion of the world international LNG, so the overall impact was very marginal. You know, please appreciate that, you know, gas versus coal is, is always a consideration in any market evaluation and analysis that we undertake, 'cause gas is an alternative to energy production. That's something that we do monitor very closely.
Thanks, Mark. I see several questions of a similar nature coming through related to dividend, clarifications or interest in the dividend policy, dividend payout ratios, and the philosophy behind the, the dividend distributions in the, the first half. Perhaps, Kevin, you might be best placed to provide some comments with regards to what we've delivered for the first half dividend, what we've done in the past, and the policy guidelines we have in place.
Thanks, Brendan. To start with, a statement about a dividend policy of Yancoal, I think, probably the easier way. Yancoal has been just stick to a simple 50% of either free cash flow or NPAT, whichever is higher, as our guidance to the market for our dividends. For investors who have been following Yancoal, clearly you will see today, or last night when you saw the announcement, the 37%, sorry, AUD 0.37 per share, is equal to roughly about a 50%+ of Yancoal's NPAT. We have been just following our commitment to the investors, this is the discipline we will be following in foreseeable future.
We need to state, we, as a company, our board has the ultimate, the right to decide our final dividend return. All the decisions, from management perspective, we work our best to provide the best proposal, but everything at the end of the day will subject to board's final approval. Thank you.
Thanks, Kevin. I do see more questions on the webcast. I'll take a moment, Jonathan, to come back to you to check if we have anything coming through on the phone line.
Yes, we have a question. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Angus McGeoch from Barrenjoey. Your question, please.
Hi, guys, thanks for taking my call, and congratulations on the results. Sorry, my question. Just two questions from me. Just on your production outlook, just the phase recovery there, and just considering where you were, I guess, in 2021, do you see a pathway to recovering, particularly those second half volumes near term? How should we think about just the, the longer term damage from, from the water issues, would be just, just trying to get a sense of the phase recovery profile. Secondly, just with reference to your balance sheet. Obviously, your balance sheet's in a very good position now with, with no debt, and that's been a great effort to deliver your balance sheet. How do you think about debt on balance sheet from a forward-looking basis?
Okay. Thanks, Angus. Thanks for those questions and joining us this morning.
Look, I, I think, what we had over the last couple of years was unprecedented when it came to rain. As I said earlier, we last year focused on making sure we got our production as high as we could to take the opportunities we had with the, with the coal price. As, as we said, at the, the recovery, we put additional assets in, we put additional people on. We, we are pushing very hard at the moment, but we're focused basically on recovery that, that we lost last year. We said that we would step it up quarter on quarter, and that's exactly what we're doing. We've seen some very good signs, across our sites at the moment. The performance is, is coming back up to levels that, that, we used to get historically.
Shorter term, I think we are well on track to achieve what we said, and that is to get us within that guidance range, but also, you know, that's recovering significantly, a lot of what we'd lost. Realistically, we've got about another three to six months work after that to be happy with, with where all our mines sit when it comes to their overburden in advance and their pre-strip, and to continue to deliver output levels that we were delivering on prior to the 2021 and 2022 years. On the debt side, I thought I might just throw that across to Kevin and let him answer that one.
Thanks, David. First of all, I think from Yancoal management and the board of perspective, we are being very open-minded. We have paid all the debt, but we never say we never borrow. It's everything is about how to maximize shareholder value. In such a high interest rate environment, and then if we feel, you know, it's better to actually save the financial cost, actually return, return the reasonable yield back to the investors, we'll do so. Then, and then similarly, if we have the same great opportunities and Yancoal has the capacity, raise debts in the market, and then we will seek such opportunity, and we will make sure we make the balance sheet even more efficient. That's, that's all be about that. Thank you.
Yeah, I just have one comment, Angus, right at the end there, that, that Kevin touched on it then. I mean, we don't want to sit here with a lazy balance sheet either, and our board is very conscious of that. They will look at capital management to ensure that we manage our balance sheet in an efficient way.
Thanks, Kevin. Thanks, David. That leads into another topic, which is coming up on the webcast, that of potential corporate activity, appetite for acquisitions, and funding methodologies that might be implied, might be applied should an acquisition occur. Could you speak to the broad outlook Yancoal applies to potential acquisitions?
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Brendan. I think our, our position has, has not altered. I think that we look at external opportunities, but we're also looking at internal organic growth opportunities as well. Organic growth in, in the company, we're, we're progressing those at the moment. That is, I think you've heard us talk previously about the upgrade to our coal preparation facilities, Moolarben, and increasing the capacity of that open cut there from 14 to 16 million tons. We do have an underground mine concept, which we're reviewing at, at MTW as an organic project. Internally, we've got, we've got. Externally, yes, we do look at assets that come on market, and we are not frightened to expand our coal base.
I mean, we've talked about it previously, met coal is still our favorite position if we, if we were looking at acquisitions. It's, it's not really changed. I think, it's, it's still very much aligned with the strategy that we've been talking about now for the last year, year or 18 months. We are still looking at other commodities. We are building our knowledge base within the company, in, in other commodities, but at the moment, we're, we're not moving in that area. We're just, we're just gaining, gaining knowledge and, and understanding of it. On the funding side, I might again pass across to Kevin to talk about that.
Yeah, I think, once again, it's about this kind of open-minded and flexibility. We as a company, yes, we appreciate the fact in, in the market, if, you know, capital market, probably there are a lot of funding constraints. The Yancoal is no different, but in our financial accounts, I think we have stated we still are open to, you know, best facilities if, you know, we, we believe that's the best capital management strategy. We're also open, you know, to the equity raising opportunities, you know, subject to the compliance and regulator, you know, approvals. All these things are definitely all available to the company, and we endeavor to assess them, you know, as what David just mentioned, when the right opportunity comes in.
Thanks, Kevin. Taking a question now from Bruce Wang at Huatai Securities. He has two questions. The first one coming through relates to the coal markets. Question is: the coking coal price in Australia, it looks firmer than the thermal coal price through the first half of 2023. Do we have relative drivers between the coking coal and thermal coal markets? Any comments on outlooks for the coming quarters? The second question: With the decline of the coal price, do we think there's more chance for securing good-quality coking coal assets in the future?
I'll let, I'll let Mark answer the first part. I'll just comment very briefly on the second part. It's like everything, I, I suppose, that, the coal, coal price gets factored into valuations. Valuations drive what what decide when they want to divest or otherwise, assets. In, in some ways, declining coal price, would make some of the assets more attractive. Also, I think what it does is it, it takes some, some of the, the benefit out of it for the seller as well.
There's always a balance between where the coal price is, and whether you get, you know, the better or the worse mines, and is it the time I mean, it's it's the time for a buyer to be buying, but is it the time for the seller to be selling? There's always a balance between the two. Mark, do you wanna comment on the first part about the met coal versus thermal coal dynamics?
Sure. Yeah, thanks, David. Thanks, Bruce, for your question. I think, you know, I think we have to appreciate that 2022 was a very unusual year for many factors, beyond the wet weather that impacted supply, and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, or an energy crisis, created, and plus a shortage of supply. We did see the thermal coal market appreciate beyond the met coal market at the time. What we've seen in 2023 to date is basically a return to historic relativities between met and thermal coal. You know, it was an extraordinary year in 2022 for many reasons, and I think we're seeing that return to historic relativities with the return of normal supply and market demand conditions coming into play.
The drivers for the met coal market in the future will, will be the ongoing demand of, of steel, which is purely dependent on infrastructure and economy, movements- economic movements in, in the infrastructure area. You know, this will... With the higher inflation rates, there's a lot of aspects that will come into play in terms of impacting that outlook. Thank you.
Thanks, Mark. Jonathan, coming back to you to check if there's questions on the phone before I continue with the webcast questions.
I'm not showing any questions from the phone lines, but just as a reminder, if you do have a question you'd like to ask, please press star one one.
Okay, whilst we wait for anyone to participate on the phone, next question's also coal market-related, comes from Michael Luca. We note that the Chinese customer sales volumes were back up to 24% in the first half of 2023. Observing there's a, a shift in the customer base, although, as we noted earlier in our comments from Dave, that it's a something of a resumption of the customer base we carried in the prior years. Michael observes that most Chinese power plants are using the API 5 or the 5,500 kilocalorie thermal coal. Does that mean the product mix in the foreseeable future is going to rebalance, and the realized prices will reflect a rebalance in the markets?
Yeah.
Yeah, I was gonna say, Mark, perhaps we'll hand straight to you for that one. It's another coal market question-related topic.
Sure, sure. Look, Yancoal Australia's product mix is, is what it is. Geologically, the coal is what it is, and, and that won't change. The fact that we've sold 24% of our sales into China does mean that we do produce a lot of that 5,500 category coal. China does present to us the, the best market in terms of alternatives of India, Europe, Southeast Asia. So in that regard, we're always targeting the, the optimal market return for us. Thank you.
Thank you, Mark. We'll make an extra observation. When we're looking at slide 10 in the presentation pack, we can see the volumes by customer market. Just clarifying that these are a volume differentiation of the exports. In the management discussion and analysis in the half-year result, we also provide segment analysis. You can see the revenue differentiation by customer market, and it gives some appreciation for volume versus revenue. As Mark's just been touching on, product type and price realization are the factors that can create the relative difference between the volume split and the revenue split. We've got a question coming through. It's weather-related, the observation that the Bureau of Meteorology recently upgraded its El Niño alert, asking, what can we do operationally to mitigate these impacts?
As I hand the question over to David, we're, we're noting that the several years of La Niña weather cycle just been in effect, where we're dealing with excess rain. Some drier conditions, not necessarily the worst thing for us at this point. David?
Thanks. Thanks, Brendan. Yeah, the, there, there is always a, a balance between too much water and not enough water, and the last few years we've had far too much. We have increased our storage capacity on, on all our large mines, which means we can hold more water on site. That, that significantly gives us the scope and capacity to handle the excess rain that we've, we've had. Also, by holding that water in, in out-of-pit storage facilities, which don't interfere with our mining, it also gives us a, a more secure water supply for the El Niño dry periods as well. So I think we, we are pretty well set up now.
We, we did invest significantly last year in those storage facilities and also pumping facilities to move water faster out of the mine working areas into those out-of-pit storage facilities. Also that gives us some security as well in, in dry periods.
Thank you. We've got a, what looks to be on, on the dividend discussion from earlier, Kevin. One of the participants on the webcast noted that the, the dividend is equivalent to the first half of 2022 dividend franking credits. Curious to know if this was a deliberate outcome, and how the, how the, the short term and the long term split of dividends might be determined in any given period?
Thanks. First of all, I don't think this is a deliberate. As I mentioned, there's a clear guideline from the company. We want to ensure we provide certain consistency to the market. They happen to be similar, that's not a bad thing to us. The franking credit was mentioned here. I just want to take this opportunity once again to emphasize the importance for Yancoal, started paying cash tax, accumulating sufficient franking credit, made them available to ASX-listed Hong Kong Exchange investors. We all believe those dividends, with or without franking dividend, eventually, hopefully, they all provide the best return to our investors.
Thanks, Kevin. Jonathan, I'll come back to you to check if we've had any further questions come through on the phone line.
I'm not showing any questions from the phone lines at this time.
Okay. I've addressed or amalgamated all the various webcast questions coming through from investors and analysts. I'll wait one more moment to see if any further questions come through from investors or analysts, and if nothing pops up in the next 10 or 20 seconds, maybe 30 seconds to allow for typing, I'll, I'll be then handing back to, to David to provide some closing comments before we hand them back to Jonathan to close out the call. Last call for any questions. As David mentioned earlier, I am available, Brendan Fitzpatrick, my details are on the, the market releases, mobile phone, email. You can reach out to me for anything that needs to be followed up after the webcast. Jonathan, quick check, any questions with you?
Not showing any at this time.
Okay, I'm showing no further questions from investors or analysts on the conference call. David, I'll hand back to you to make some closing remarks.
Thanks, Brendan. I might just like to thank everybody again for joining us this morning, for this six-month investor presentation. I think the pleasing thing is, we are achieving what we said we would achieve when we kicked away this year. We knew that we had some deficiencies in our inventory levels because of the rain last year. We did speed up that recovery by some levels of investment, both in the plant and employee numbers. The pleasing thing is now that the mines are getting back to where we want them to be, and at this moment in time, we're starting to see some very good productivity outcomes at all our big operations. Thank everybody for supporting us and being here this morning.
We look forward to an even better second six months, and delivering on those guidance figures that we said we would do. Thank everybody for attending, and look forward to speaking to you again in the future.
Thanks, David. Jonathan, could you please conclude the call for us?
Certainly. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's call. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.