MP - MP Materials Corp. (MP) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

2024-05-02 21:53:08 ET

MP Materials Corp. (MP)

Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call

May 02, 2024, 05:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Martin Sheehan - IR

Jim Litinsky - Founder, Chairman and CEO

Ryan Corbett - CFO

Michael Rosenthal - Founder and COO

Conference Call Participants

Matt Somerville - D.A. Davidson & Co

George Gianarikas - Canaccord Genuity

Carlos de Alba - Morgan Stanley

David Dekelbaum - TD Cowen

Lawson Winder - Bank of America

Bill Peterson - JPMorgan

Benjamin Kallo - Baird

Presentation

Operator

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending the MP Materials First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call and webcast. My name is, Victoria, and I'll be your moderator today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Martin Sheehan, head of investor relations. Thank you. You may proceed, Martin.

Martin Sheehan

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the MP Materials first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. With me today from MP Materials are Jim Litinsky, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Michael Rosenthal, Founder and Chief Operating Officer; and Ryan Corbett, Chief Financial Officer.

As a reminder, today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements relating to future events and expectations that are subject to various assumptions and caveats. Factors that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in today's presentation, earnings release and in our SEC filings. In addition, we have included some non-GAAP financial measures in this presentation. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in today's earnings release and the appendix to today's slide presentation. Any reference in our discussion today to EBITDA means adjusted EBITDA. Finally, the earnings release and slide presentation are available on our website.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Jim. Jim?

Jim Litinsky

Thanks, Martin. Hello, everyone. As is our usual program, I will open by covering some year-to-date highlights. Ryan will then go through our financial performance and operating KPIs. Michael will follow that with an overview and updates on Mountain Pass operations, and I will then come back with some closing remarks before Q&A.

So, let's start on slide four. As Michael hinted at on our fourth quarter call, our concentrate production in the first quarter was outstanding. We produced the second-highest tonnage of REO in Mountain Pass history. Plant uptime was at near-record levels. This was a particularly impressive quarter of upstream execution, given that we are operating with the backdrop of continued downstream optimization and site expansion efforts.

As discussed in detail last quarter, we are tactically managing our refining ramp in light of the market environment. We are focused on near-term cash flow optimization while we position for maximum long-term profitability. Consequently, record-level production this quarter meant strong concentrate sales....

For further details see: