MP Materials Corp (MP) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, hello, and welcome to the MP Materials Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. My name is Maxine, and I'll be coordinating the call today. (Operator Instructions)

女士們先生們，大家好，歡迎參加 MP Materials 2022 年第三季度財報電話會議。我的名字是 Maxine，我將在今天協調電話會議。 （操作員說明）

I will now hand over to Martin Sheehan, the Head of Investor Relations to begin. Martin, please go ahead when you're ready.

我現在將由投資者關係主管 Martin Sheehan 開始。馬丁，準備好後請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and good day, everyone. Welcome to the MP Materials Third Quarter 2022 Earnings 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.

謝謝你，接線員，大家好。歡迎參加 MP Materials 2022 年第三季度財報電話會議。今天和我一起來自 MP Materials 的還有創始人、董事長兼首席執行官 Jim Litinsky； Michael Rosenthal，創始人兼首席運營官；和首席財務官 Ryan Corbett。

Before we get to our remarks, 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 the appendix to today's presentation and earnings release. Any reference to our discussion today to EBITDA means adjusted EBITDA. Finally, the earnings release and slide presentation are available on our website.

在我們發表評論之前，提醒一下，今天的討論將包含與未來事件和預期相關的前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受各種假設和警告的影響。可能導致公司實際業績與這些陳述產生重大差異的因素包含在今天的演示文稿、收益發布和我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中。此外，我們在本演示文稿中包含了一些非公認會計原則的財務指標。與最直接可比的 GAAP 財務指標的對賬可以在今天的演示文稿和收益發布的附錄中找到。任何提及我們今天討論的 EBITDA 均指調整後的 EBITDA。最後，我們的網站上提供了收益發布和幻燈片演示。

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

有了這個，我會把電話轉給吉姆。吉姆?

Thanks, Martin, and thank you all for joining us today. Let me start with the plan for today's call. First, I will open up with highlights of the quarter. Ryan will then review our financials and KPIs, Michael will then provide an update on our Stage 2 optimization at Mountain Pass. I'll then return and close with a brief update on our Stage 3 magnetics business before opening things up for Q&A.

謝謝，馬丁，謝謝大家今天加入我們。讓我從今天電話會議的計劃開始。首先，我將介紹本季度的亮點。然後，Ryan 將審查我們的財務和 KPI，然後 Michael 將提供有關 Mountain Pass 的第 2 階段優化的最新信息。然後，我將返回並簡要介紹我們的第 3 階段磁性業務，然後再進行問答。

So let's get started on Slide 4. I'm going to change the usual order of my highlights commentary and start with some exciting news. In September, we reached a major milestone. We began commissioning Stage 2 at Mountain Pass. We are starting test operations in several circuits, beginning with concentrate drying and roasting. As you may recall, reintroducing roasting is one of the key strategic decisions we made for our Stage 2 optimization. Roasting of bastnaesite concentrate was pioneered at Mountain Pass in the 1960s and was critical to the site's success over many decades. Roasting leverages the natural advantages of bastnaesite ore, ensuring high NdPr recovery, while significantly reducing the reagent and energy intensity and hence, the cost of the refining process.

所以讓我們從幻燈片 4 開始。我將改變我的重點評論的通常順序，並從一些令人興奮的消息開始。九月，我們達到了一個重要的里程碑。我們開始在山口調試第 2 階段。我們正在幾個循環中開始測試操作，從濃縮乾燥和烘烤開始。您可能還記得，重新引入烘焙是我們為第 2 階段優化做出的關鍵戰略決策之一。 1960 年代，芒廷帕斯率先開始焙燒氟碳鈰礦精礦，這對該礦場數十年來的成功至關重要。焙燒利用氟碳鈰礦的天然優勢，確保高 NdPr 回收率，同時顯著降低試劑和能源強度，從而降低精煉過程的成本。

Roasting is a proven and well accepted industry process for refining bastnaesite ore. In combination with other Stage 2 enhancements, the reintroduction of the roaster positions us to return Mountain Pass as a global low-cost producer of NdPr oxide, thereby continuing what we have already done in rare earth concentrate. I want to stress that these are very early days in the transition to Stage 2. We have a lot of painstaking work ahead that will unfold over the next year. Commissioning will certainly not be a linear process. There will be ups and downs and starts and stops, so be prepared for some lumpiness in our results during this transition. But that said, I am proud of how relentlessly the MP team has been executing so far.

焙燒是精煉氟碳鈰礦的成熟且廣為接受的工業工藝。結合其他第 2 階段的改進，重新引入焙燒爐使我們能夠重返山口，成為全球低成本的 NdPr 氧化物生產商，從而繼續我們已經在稀土精礦方面所做的工作。我想強調的是，現在是向第二階段過渡的早期階段。我們有很多艱苦的工作將在明年展開。調試肯定不會是一個線性過程。會有起起落落，起起落落，所以要準備好在這個過渡期間我們的結果有些不穩定。但話雖如此，我為 MP 團隊迄今為止的執行力感到自豪。

When we consider what has happened this year in geopolitics, the challenges across a weakening global economy, and the continued disruptions across supply chains, today's milestone is amazing. This is probably the most challenging real operating economic environment most people working today have faced in their careers. We are, therefore, moving forward with commissioning with humility, but we are confident in our ability to execute over time. We have an outstanding team with unwavering determination. Turning to Stage 3. In September, our magnetics team also reached a major milestone. We topped off the structure of our magnetics factory in Fort Worth, completing the building shell in just 7 months and began the build-out of internal utilities and infrastructure. As we advance construction, we are simultaneously adding significant depth and breadth to our team and rapidly growing the organization's engineering and manufacturing capabilities.

當我們考慮今年在地緣政治方面發生的事情、全球經濟疲軟帶來的挑戰以及供應鏈的持續中斷時，今天的里程碑是驚人的。這可能是當今大多數工作人員在其職業生涯中面臨的最具挑戰性的真實經營經濟環境。因此，我們謙虛地推進調試工作，但我們對隨著時間的推移執行的能力充滿信心。我們擁有一支堅定不移的優秀團隊。轉到第三階段。九月，我們的磁學團隊也達到了一個重要的里程碑。我們在沃思堡完成了磁性工廠的結構，在短短 7 個月內完成了建築外殼，並開始建造內部公用設施和基礎設施。隨著我們推進建設，我們同時為我們的團隊增加了顯著的深度和廣度，並迅速提高了組織的工程和製造能力。

The magnetics team is focused on advancing the state-of-the-art with respect to manufacturing technology and innovation and rapidly designing and sourcing the long lead equipment we need to begin production. As with Stage 2, the Stage 3 team has many challenges ahead, but we are off to a solid start. We are making substantial progress. Moving to our third quarter results. Despite the significant Stage 2 related work going on at Mountain Pass, the Stage 1 operation continues to deliver strong production levels, while keeping costs under control. We produced our second highest quarterly volume of nearly 10,900 metric tons of rare earth oxides contained in concentrate and sold nearly 10,700 metric tons. And with regards to our financials, if you heard us speak during the third quarter conference season, you would have heard our commentary on the decline in NdPr prices quarter-on-quarter.

磁性團隊專注於推進製造技術和創新方面的最先進技術，并快速設計和採購我們開始生產所需的長引線設備。與第 2 階段一樣，第 3 階段團隊面臨許多挑戰，但我們已經有了一個堅實的開端。我們正在取得實質性進展。轉到我們的第三季度業績。儘管 Mountain Pass 正在進行重要的第 2 階段相關工作，但第 1 階段的運營繼續提供強勁的生產水平，同時控製成本。我們生產了近 10,900 公噸精礦中稀土氧化物的第二高季度產量，並銷售了近 10,700 公噸。關於我們的財務狀況，如果您在第三季度會議期間聽到我們的講話，您就會聽到我們對 NdPr 價格環比下降的評論。

We believe the decline was mainly due to global economic conditions and the widespread lockdowns in China. Despite that decline and a stronger dollar, average prices were up materially from a year ago, highlighting the continued strong demand for NdPr and by extension, our concentrate. Ryan will discuss more on pricing and financials in a moment. But in summary, our year-over-year financial performance was very strong. Revenue was up 25% to over $124 million. Adjusted EBITDA was up 34% to over $91 million. Our adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 5 points to 73% and we earned $0.36 per share in adjusted diluted EPS, an increase of 38%. This brought our year-to-date normalized Stage 1 free cash flow to approximately $321 million. That's an impressive 74% free cash flow margin on Stage 1 for the first 9 months of the year. With that overview, let me turn the call over to Ryan for some additional details on our KPIs and financials. Ryan?

我們認為下降的主要原因是全球經濟狀況和中國的廣泛封鎖。儘管出現了下降和美元走強，但平均價格比一年前大幅上漲，突顯了對釹镨的持續強勁需求，進而延伸到我們的精礦。 Ryan 稍後將討論更多有關定價和財務的信息。但總的來說，我們的年度財務表現非常強勁。收入增長 25% 至超過 1.24 億美元。調整後的 EBITDA 增長 34% 至超過 9100 萬美元。我們調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率擴大了 5 個百分點，達到 73%，調整後的攤薄每股收益為 0.36 美元，增長了 38%。這使我們年初至今的標準化第一階段自由現金流達到約 3.21 億美元。今年前 9 個月，第一階段的自由現金流量利潤率達到了令人印象深刻的 74%。通過該概述，讓我將電話轉給 Ryan，以獲取有關我們 KPI 和財務的更多詳細信息。瑞恩？

Thanks, Jim. As Jim just highlighted, Q3 was another strong quarter operationally and financially, and we delivered it even as Stage 2 construction activity at Mountain Pass reached its peak. On Slide 6 and starting with the bottom left graph, as Jim mentioned, production volumes remained very strong at 10,886 metric tons. And although down about 9% from last year's record production, we were about in line with Q1s production output as we guided to last quarter. Recall, last year's production results were driven by record mineral recoveries and extremely high uptimes and we indicated those production levels were not likely to be reached every quarter. So coming within 10% of our all-time record, while focusing on critical stage 2 activities is a testament to our team at Mountain Pass. Moreover, Stage 1 concentrate production levels north of 40,000 metric tons on an annualized basis continue to support our expectations for Stage 2 NdPr production, although we will always aim higher. Sequentially, third quarter production levels were up about 6%, mainly due to the impact of our biannual week long plant turnaround in the second quarter. I would point out that we just successfully completed our October shutdown, and therefore, we should see Q4 production reduced sequentially and be more comparable to our second quarter output.

謝謝，吉姆。正如 Jim 剛剛強調的那樣，第三季度在運營和財務方面又是一個強勁的季度，即使在 Mountain Pass 的第二階段建設活動達到頂峰時，我們也交付了它。在幻燈片 6 上，從左下圖開始，正如 Jim 所提到的，產量仍然非常強勁，為 10,886 公噸。儘管與去年創紀錄的產量相比下降了約 9%，但我們與上一季度指導的第一季度產量大致相符。回想一下，去年的生產結果是由創紀錄的礦物回收率和極高的正常運行時間推動的，我們表示不可能每個季度都達到這些生產水平。因此，在我們的歷史記錄的 10% 以內，同時專注於關鍵的第 2 階段活動，這證明了我們在 Mountain Pass 的團隊。此外，年化 40,000 公噸以北的第一階段精礦生產水平繼續支持我們對第二階段 NdPr 生產的預期，儘管我們將始終追求更高的目標。隨後，第三季度的產量水平上升了約 6%，主要是由於我們在第二季度一年兩次的工廠周轉的影響。我要指出的是，我們剛剛成功完成了 10 月份的停產，因此，我們應該會看到第四季度的產量環比下降，並且與第二季度的產量更具可比性。

Moving to the top left chart. Sales volumes continue to track production closely with slight variations based on the timing of shipments. Given the nature of our offtake agreement and the demand for our concentrate, we generally see sales volumes closely tracking production. However, in looking forward to the fourth quarter, as we started commissioning of Stage 2, we are beginning to divert some volumes away from sales and into the charging of our circuits. This will somewhat reduce our sold volume as a proportion of production. Of course, part of this is a temporary working capital item as we charge circuits to eventually begin production of refined products, which Michael will discuss more in a minute.

移動到左上角的圖表。銷量繼續密切跟踪生產，根據發貨時間略有變化。鑑於我們的承購協議的性質和對我們精礦的需求，我們通常認為銷量與產量密切相關。然而，展望第四季度，隨著我們開始第二階段的調試，我們開始將一些銷量從銷售中轉移到我們的電路充電中。這將在一定程度上降低我們的銷售量占生產的比例。當然，其中一部分是臨時營運資金項目，因為我們對電路進行充電以最終開始生產精煉產品，邁克爾將在稍後討論更多。

Moving to the top right. As Jim mentioned, pricing remained very strong relative to a year ago, up over 50%, highlighting the overall strong demand for our concentrate, and this includes a modest impact from foreign exchange moving against us versus last year. Sequentially, pricing was down about 16%, as we had highlighted on our last earnings call, driven by the market price of NdPr, as Jim mentioned. Recall that NdPr comprise around 16% of the rare earths in our ore body. And on a P times Q or total value basis, make up over 90% of the value of the rare earths in our concentrate. As such, the price of our concentrate is highly correlated to the price of NdPr. And due to the timing of our price negotiations with actual product delivery, there was a roughly 1-month lag in our reported realized pricing compared to the spot rate of NdPr.

移動到右上角。正如 Jim 所說，與一年前相比，價格仍然非常強勁，上漲了 50% 以上，突顯了對我們精礦的整體強勁需求，其中包括與去年相比，外匯對我們不利的影響不大。正如 Jim 所說，在 NdPr 市場價格的推動下，正如我們在上次財報電話會議上強調的那樣，價格隨後下降了約 16%。回想一下，NdPr 約占我們礦體中稀土的 16%。在 P 乘以 Q 或總值的基礎上，占我們精礦中稀土價值的 90% 以上。因此，我們的精礦價格與釹镨價格高度相關。由於我們與實際產品交付進行價格談判的時間安排，與 NdPr 的現貨價格相比，我們報告的實際定價大約滯後 1 個月。

NdPr pricing has recently stabilized in the low $90 range, which would suggest more than a 25% decline in sequential realized pricing assuming that spot rates hold through the rest of the fourth quarter, resulting in realized pricing that would be below last years fourth quarter on a dollars basis. Recall, it was about this time last year that pricing for NdPr began to climb rapidly, and FX has obviously moved significantly year-over-year.

NdPr 定價最近穩定在 90 美元的低位，這表明假設即期匯率在第四季度剩餘時間內保持不變，這表明連續實現定價下降 25% 以上，導致實際定價低於去年第四季度以美元為基礎。回想一下，大約在去年這個時候，NdPr 的價格開始迅速攀升，而 FX 顯然與去年同期相比發生了顯著變化。

Lastly, on the bottom right graph of the slide, core Stage 1 production costs remained very low at about $1,430 per metric ton. This is up slightly from last year due to the scale effect of large production output and sales of a year ago, while sequentially, core costs were up slightly due to continued head count growth. Stage 2 related production expenses were similarly impacted relative to prior quarters. We will continue to hire as we move through the fourth quarter and into next year. Initially, some of these labor costs will fall under start-up costs until the various sections of the plant are fully commissioned and operating at expected rates. I would like to add that, understandably, we get the occasional question on the impact that inflation is having on our business. We are not immune to the many cost increases impacting the economy. For example, diesel fuel for our mining fleet as well as trucking costs to the port have all been impacted. Generally speaking, our operating efficiency has mostly offset many of these increases.

最後，在幻燈片的右下角，第一階段的核心生產成本仍然非常低，約為每公噸 1,430 美元。受上年大產銷規模效應的影響，這一數字較去年略有上升，而環比來看，由於員工人數的持續增長，核心成本略有上升。與前幾個季度相比，第 2 階段相關的生產費用也受到了類似的影響。隨著第四季度和明年的到來，我們將繼續招聘。最初，這些勞動力成本中的一些將屬於啟動成本，直到工廠的各個部分完全調試並以預期的速度運行。我想補充一點，可以理解的是，我們偶爾會收到關於通貨膨脹對我們業務的影響的問題。我們不能倖免於影響經濟的許多成本增加。例如，我們採礦車隊的柴油燃料以及到港口的卡車運輸成本都受到了影響。一般來說，我們的運營效率大部分抵消了這些增長。

I would also note that we recognize the impact inflation is having on our employees. They are, after all, the lifeblood of this business, and have been instrumental in our success to date. To counteract the effects of inflation starting in mid-July, we began issuing fuel stipends to all of our nonexecutive employees. In addition, beginning this week, we issued nearly all nonexecutive employees a healthy early cost of living pay increase. This is separate from our annual merit reviews that take place towards the end of the year. So while we may see modest cost increases come through our P&L from these efforts, we believe supporting our workforce in these challenging times is critical to our business at large. We believe that fostering an owner-operator culture will help keep employee morale high and turnover very low, which is another competitive advantage in the long run.

我還要指出，我們認識到通貨膨脹對我們員工的影響。畢竟，它們是這項業務的命脈，並且在我們迄今為止的成功中發揮了重要作用。為了抵消從 7 月中旬開始的通脹影響，我們開始向所有非執行員工發放燃料津貼。此外，從本週開始，我們向幾乎所有非執行員工發放了健康的早期生活費用加薪。這與我們在年底進行的年度績效評估是分開的。因此，雖然我們可能會看到這些努力通過損益錶帶來適度的成本增加，但我們相信在這些充滿挑戰的時期支持我們的員工隊伍對我們的整體業務至關重要。我們相信，營造一種業主-經營者文化將有助於保持員工士氣高漲和流動率非常低，從長遠來看，這是另一個競爭優勢。

Moving to Slide 7. Revenue increased 25% year-over-year as strong realized pricing more than offset the compare to last year's record volumes. This flowed through to our adjusted EBITDA, which was up 34%. Our margins, which increased 5 percentage points and our adjusted diluted EPS, which increased 38%. Conversely, lower sequential realized pricing off of second quarter records resulted in modest declines in our financial metrics quarter-over-quarter, as you can see on the chart. The strong operational and financial performance resulted in continued strong cash generation out of Stage 1, which is shown on Slide 8.

轉到幻燈片 7。收入同比增長 25%，因為強勁的已實現定價遠遠抵消了與去年創紀錄的銷量相比。這流向了我們調整後的 EBITDA，增長了 34%。我們的利潤率增加了 5 個百分點，調整後的攤薄每股收益增加了 38%。相反，正如您在圖表中看到的那樣，第二季度記錄的較低連續實現定價導致我們的財務指標季度環比適度下降。強勁的運營和財務業績導致第一階段產生持續強勁的現金，如幻燈片 8 所示。

Normalized Stage 1 free cash flow was approximately $93 million in the quarter, bringing the year-to-date total to $320.8 billion. And company operating cash flow has funded all of our growth CapEx so far this year, as we remain positive free cash flow year-to-date. Total CapEx was about $92 million in the quarter, and as such, we would expect CapEx to further ramp into Q4. Importantly, we remain on track with our projects from a schedule and cost perspective, but the timing of payments has been better than originally modeled. We continue to expect a total CapEx investment of approximately $700 million to complete our 4 major projects: Stage 2 light rare earth separation, heavy separations, the construction of our Stage 3 magnetics facility in Texas and recycling.

本季度標準化第一階段自由現金流約為 9300 萬美元，使年初至今的總額達到 3208 億美元。今年到目前為止，公司的運營現金流為我們所有的增長資本支出提供了資金，因為我們今年迄今仍保持正的自由現金流。本季度總資本支出約為 9200 萬美元，因此，我們預計資本支出將進一步增加至第四季度。重要的是，從進度和成本的角度來看，我們的項目仍在按計劃進行，但付款時間比最初建模的要好。我們繼續預計資本支出總額約為 7 億美元，以完成我們的 4 個主要項目：第 2 階段輕稀土分離、重分離、在德克薩斯州建造第 3 階段磁性設施和回收利用。

But given our year-to-date spend and payment timing factors, such as holdbacks and retentions for the final completion of Stage 2 and down payments for long lead stage 3 items, a greater percentage of that cash deployment will spill into 2023 versus 2022 as compared to our original expectation communicated in February. Regarding the balance sheet, as you will recall last quarter, we took advantage of the rise in treasury rates to invest a portion of our cash balance into higher-yielding, short duration U.S. government-backed securities. This quarter, we increased that investment. And as of September 30, we now have approximately $836.3 million of short-term investments in addition to $428 million of cash and cash equivalents for a total balance of $1.26 billion of cash equivalent and short-term investments, which is virtually unchanged from the end of the second quarter despite the ramp in capital expenditures.

但考慮到我們年初至今的支出和付款時間因素，例如第 2 階段最終完成的保留和保留以及長期領先第 3 階段項目的預付款，與 2022 年相比，更大比例的現金部署將溢出到 2023 年，因為與我們在 2 月份傳達的最初預期相比。關於資產負債表，您會記得上個季度，我們利用國債利率上升的機會，將部分現金餘額投資於收益率更高、期限短的美國政府支持證券。本季度，我們增加了投資。截至 9 月 30 日，我們現在擁有約 8.363 億美元的短期投資，此外還有 4.28 億美元的現金和現金等價物，現金等價物和短期投資的總餘額為 12.6 億美元，與年底基本持平儘管資本支出有所增加，但第二季度的數據。

You will also see the impact of this move from cash into short-term investment on the cash flow statement when we file our 10-Q tomorrow. Before moving on, I did want to address a couple of housekeeping items for you. First, regarding adjusted net income and diluted EPS. Historically, we had excluded depletion expense when calculating our adjusted net income and therefore, also our adjusted diluted EPS. This was to aid comparability between our pre- and post-IPO financials. As pre-IPO, we recognized a royalty expense for our mineral asset versus our current treatment of recognizing depletion on the stepped-up book value of our consolidated mineral expense. Going forward, we are no longer excluding the depletion expense from our calculations and have presented prior periods on an apples-to-apples basis.

當我們明天提交 10-Q 時，您還將看到從現金轉向短期投資對現金流量表的影響。在繼續之前，我確實想為您解決一些家務問題。首先，關於調整後的淨利潤和攤薄後的每股收益。從歷史上看，我們在計算調整後的淨收入時排除了消耗費用，因此也排除了調整後的攤薄每股收益。這是為了幫助我們在 IPO 前後的財務狀況之間進行比較。作為首次公開募股前，我們確認了礦產資產的特許權使用費，而我們目前對合併礦產費用的增加賬面價值確認損耗的處理方式。展望未來，我們不再將消耗費用排除在我們的計算之外，而是在蘋果對蘋果的基礎上呈現前期。

Second, as we've previously discussed in our filings, we made a request to rezone certain of our properties at the Mountain Pass site. We are pleased to have received final approval from San Bernadino County and the division of mine reclamation on this rezoning and the related changes to our reclamation obligation in September. There will be additional details in our 10-Q. But in short, this change results in materially lower estimated reclamation costs, reducing our asset retirement obligation, or ARO, liability on our balance sheet by over $13 million. The GAAP accounting for this change required us to reduce PP&E, i.e., the carrying value of the relevant access by $10.4 million, but charge the remaining $2.7 million as a credit to our depletion, depreciation and amortization expense.

其次，正如我們之前在文件中討論的那樣，我們請求重新劃分我們在山口站點的某些物業。我們很高興收到聖貝納迪諾縣和礦山復墾部門對這次重新分區以及我們 9 月份復墾義務的相關變更的最終批准。在我們的 10-Q 中會有更多的細節。但簡而言之，這種變化導致估計的回收成本大大降低，使我們資產負債表上的資產報廢義務或 ARO 負債減少了超過 1300 萬美元。考慮到這一變化的 GAAP 要求我們減少 PP&E，即相關訪問權的賬面價值減少 1040 萬美元，但將剩餘的 270 萬美元記入我們的消耗、折舊和攤銷費用。

So for this quarter, you will see a discrete credit in DD&A, which should not repeat going forward. Looking forward to next quarter, I have already provided some commentary on pricing and volumes versus this quarter and versus the year ago period that will provide some quite challenging comparison. Importantly, the fourth quarter will be the beginning of several transition quarters as we prioritize commissioning of our Stage 2 assets above all else. We expect volumes held back for commissioning and charging of the circuits to ramp through the fourth quarter and continue into next year. But of course, we will continue to work to maximize the earnings power of the Stage 1 business as we get Stage 2 ready and ranked.

因此，在本季度，您將看到 DD&A 中的離散信用，今後不應重複。展望下個季度，我已經提供了一些關於定價和銷量與本季度和去年同期相比的評論，這將提供一些相當具有挑戰性的比較。重要的是，第四季度將是幾個過渡季度的開始，因為我們將第二階段資產的調試放在首位。我們預計，因電路調試和充電而停滯的數量將在第四季度上升並持續到明年。但是，當然，隨著我們準備好第 2 階段並進行排名，我們將繼續努力最大化第 1 階段業務的盈利能力。

In closing, I want to reiterate our conviction in our markets and our operating model. With Q3 representing another strong quarter across the board for the company's operations. Production cost control and demand for our product continue to highlight the significant early success of our 3-stage strategy, which gives us additional confidence in our ability to execute on Stages 2 and 3.

最後，我想重申我們對市場和運營模式的信念。第三季度代表了公司運營的另一個強勁季度。生產成本控制和對我們產品的需求繼續突出我們三階段戰略的早期成功，這讓我們對我們在階段 2 和階段 3 的執行能力更有信心。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Michael to give you some additional details on our Stage 2 progress. Michael?

有了這個，我將把電話轉給邁克爾，為您提供有關我們第 2 階段進展的更多詳細信息。邁克爾?

Thanks, Ryan. During the quarter, construction continued and weekly progress was steady. Concrete, steel and major process equipment installation has largely been completed. Secondary mechanical equipment, piping, electrical and instrumentation represented the predominant effort in the quarter as we would expect at this point in the project. Completion of construction is now in sight, and we see no major impediments to completion other than time and our insistence on quality control. Slowly and soon quickly, we will be pivoting from construction mode to all out commissioning mode. This starts with pre-commissioning efforts that incorporate the examination of each process boundary to identify punch list construction items, verify as-built to piping and instrumentation diagrams, confirm the safe operability of equipment, complete pressure testing and line flushing, verify all utility services and perform other pre-start-up checks.

謝謝，瑞恩。本季度，施工繼續進行，每週進度穩定。混凝土、鋼材和主要工藝設備的安裝已基本完成。二次機械設備、管道、電氣和儀表是本季度的主要工作，正如我們在項目此時所預期的那樣。施工即將完工，除了時間和我們對質量控制的堅持外，我們沒有看到任何重大障礙。慢慢地，很快地，我們將從建設模式轉向全面調試模式。首先是預調試工作，包括檢查每個過程邊界以確定打卡清單施工項目，驗證管道和儀表圖的竣工情況，確認設備的安全可操作性，完成壓力測試和管道沖洗，驗證所有公用事業服務並執行其他啟動前檢查。

Next, we will verify electrical terminations, complete instrumentation loop checks, equipment bump tests and begin enabling the automated operation of all equipment and control systems in coordination with our equipment vendors and commissioning team. Once this is complete, the real fun of commissioning begins, and we will move on to the next circuit or system boundary. In September, we reached an exciting first milestone with the commencement of commissioning activities in the concentrate filtration, drying and roaster area. Initial fills of the filter feed tank have begun and rare earth concentrate slurry has now been run through the filter press and filter cake has passed through the rotary dryer.

接下來，我們將與我們的設備供應商和調試團隊合作，驗證電氣終端、完整的儀表迴路檢查、設備衝擊測試，並開始實現所有設備和控制系統的自動化操作。一旦完成，調試的真正樂趣就開始了，我們將進入下一個電路或系統邊界。 9 月，隨著精礦過濾、乾燥和焙燒區調試活動的開始，我們達到了激動人心的第一個里程碑。過濾器進料罐的初始填充已經開始，稀土精礦漿現在已經通過壓濾機，濾餅已經通過旋轉乾燥器。

We are addressing control systems, bugs and mechanical equipment issues as they arise. We are planning for initial runs of dried concentrate through the roaster in the coming weeks. At the same time, construction is nearing completion in the salt crystallizer area, and the pre-commissioning steps and loop checks are starting here as well. Over the past several months, many of the legacy circuits have completed their upgrade and recommissioning efforts and are awaiting fresh feed. In this camp includes the impurity removal circuit, the heavy light rare earth [pump] separation process and the NdPr separation facility. Our waste fund treatment and concentration facilities are now substantially ready for operation as well with various expansions and enhancements underway. It is an exciting time at Mountain Pass. We are growing our teams in preparation for operating and maintaining the Stage 2 assets, completing standard operating procedure development, expanding training and getting into the slog of commissioning. As mentioned, we have started to feed a limited amount of rare earth concentrate into the new circuits to feed them. We will then begin commissioning and conducting performance testing largely in process sequence to confirm the ability to meet design flow rates. To the extent necessary or required, we will test out of process order, such as we have with our brine treatment circuit.

我們正在解決出現的控制系統、錯誤和機械設備問題。我們計劃在接下來的幾週內通過烘焙機進行乾燥濃縮物的初步運行。與此同時，鹽結晶器區域的建設接近尾聲，預調試步驟和迴路檢查也從這裡開始。在過去的幾個月裡，許多傳統電路已經完成了升級和重新調試工作，正在等待新的饋送。該陣營包括除雜迴路、重輕稀土[泵]分離工藝和NdPr分離設施。我們的廢物基金處理和集中設施現已基本準備好投入運營，並且正在進行各種擴建和改進。在山口，這是一個激動人心的時刻。我們正在發展我們的團隊，以準備運營和維護第 2 階段資產、完成標準操作程序開發、擴大培訓並進入調試階段。如前所述，我們已開始將有限數量的稀土精礦送入新電路以供它們使用。然後，我們將開始調試並主要按工藝順序進行性能測試，以確認滿足設計流量的能力。在必要或要求的範圍內，我們將按流程順序進行測試，例如我們的鹽水處理迴路。

As all circuits are commissioned and troubleshooting proceeds, we will then feed the circuits more continuously and at increasing throughputs. The volume of material dedicated to the production as oxide versus concentrate will ramp up as we reach stability. The time lag between concentrate production and the associated rare earth oxides will be longer than we have historically seen, and there will be a relatively small permanent investment in work in progress. But once a greater level of stability has been achieved, we should see this gap begin to normalize. As Jim mentioned, we expect commissioning to be a discontinuous nonlinear challenge for the balance of the year and into 2023, and we will not sacrifice long-term sustainability and product quality to hit near-term production goals.

隨著所有電路的調試和故障排除的進行，我們將更連續地為電路供電，並提高吞吐量。隨著我們達到穩定，專用於生產的氧化物與精礦的材料量將增加。精礦生產和相關稀土氧化物之間的時間滯後將比我們歷史上看到的要長，並且在建工程的永久性投資將相對較小。但是，一旦實現了更大程度的穩定，我們應該會看到這種差距開始正常化。正如 Jim 所提到的，我們預計調試將成為今年剩餘時間和 2023 年的不連續非線性挑戰，我們不會為了實現近期生產目標而犧牲長期可持續性和產品質量。

So we cannot and will not try to predict our exact trajectory. And we will need to overcome a series of expected problems, known unknowns and without a doubt, certain amounts of rework and remediation. However, what is also known is that we have an outstanding dedicated team, many with hands-on experience in successfully operating the legacy process that is up to the challenge. We also have a stable and highly profitable core business that can largely continue while we work through the commissioning process.

所以我們不能也不會試圖預測我們的確切軌跡。我們將需要克服一系列預期的問題，已知的未知數，毫無疑問，一定數量的返工和補救。然而，眾所周知的是，我們擁有一支出色的敬業團隊，其中許多人在成功運營能夠應對挑戰的遺留流程方面擁有實踐經驗。我們還擁有穩定且高利潤的核心業務，在我們完成調試過程時可以在很大程度上繼續下去。

With that, I'll turn it back to Jim.

有了這個，我會把它轉回給吉姆。

Thanks, Michael. Hopefully, Michael's commentary offers a more detailed view into the complexity of the challenges involved in completing 1 piece of our mission. It may sound daunting, but it actually speaks to the culture we have built and the value of the long-term franchise we are building at MP. As I said earlier, this is probably the most challenging global operating environment most people working today have faced in their careers. Despite this, we have steadily increased Stage 1 production. Mountain Pass has never operated better. This means we are generating an enormous amount of cash flow in our upstream business. Against all that, we have fought our way through construction and other challenges to begin Stage 2 commissioning. Simultaneously and maybe because we really like moving multibillion-dollar supply chain, take a look at Slide 11. This picture is awesome. In what was an empty field in Fort Worth 7 months ago, now stands the future center of the American magnetics industry. This building looks big on the page, but in real life, it feels a lot bigger.

謝謝，邁克爾。希望邁克爾的評論能夠更詳細地了解完成我們的一項任務所涉及的挑戰的複雜性。這聽起來可能令人生畏，但它實際上說明了我們建立的文化以及我們在 MP 建立的長期特許經營權的價值。正如我之前所說，這可能是當今大多數工作人員在其職業生涯中面臨的最具挑戰性的全球運營環境。儘管如此，我們還是穩步增加了第一階段的產量。山口從未像現在這樣運作得更好。這意味著我們在上游業務中產生了大量的現金流。儘管如此，我們已經通過建設和其他挑戰開始了第 2 階段的調試。同時，也許是因為我們真的很喜歡移動數十億美元的供應鏈，看看幻燈片 11。這張照片很棒。在 7 個月前沃斯堡的一片空地上，現在矗立著美國磁性工業的未來中心。這座建築在頁面上看起來很大，但在現實生活中，感覺要大得多。

As I mentioned earlier, we already have a completed building shell and are starting the build-out of the utilities and infrastructure. This is the most obvious sign of Stage 3 progress. But under the surface, we are doing much more to make sure MP becomes a vertically integrated magnetics champion. In addition to developing our people and capabilities, we remain committed to our buy, build and/or JV approach to Stage 3 growth. We continue to spend time with prospective customers, potential partners and of course, GM. We are fortunate to have a high-volume committed customer in General Motors. Beyond electric cars, new growth opportunities will emerge. Wind turbines are set to accelerate, thanks to geopolitical considerations as well as the recently signed IRA bill.

正如我之前提到的，我們已經有了一個完整的建築外殼，並且正在開始建造公用設施和基礎設施。這是第三階段進展最明顯的標誌。但在表面之下，我們正在做更多工作以確保 MP 成為垂直整合的磁性冠軍。除了發展我們的人員和能力外，我們仍然致力於通過購買、建造和/或合資方式來實現第三階段的增長。我們將繼續與潛在客戶、潛在合作夥伴，當然還有通用汽車公司打交道。我們很幸運在通用汽車公司擁有大量忠誠的客戶。除了電動汽車，還會出現新的增長機會。由於地緣政治考慮以及最近簽署的愛爾蘭共和軍法案，風力渦輪機將加速發展。

It seems obvious to me that there will be a robot in every home one day just like a computer and a phone. It seems obvious to me that drones and other forms of electric transportation will eventually become much more pervasive. These technologies and many others will drive incremental demand for permanent magnets for decades to come. MP's control of one of the world's preeminent rare earth resources is a source of great strategic competitive advantage. The synergies between our stages 2 and 3 are also very important to consider. In the manufacturing process, as much as 30% to 40% of magnetic material may be lost as by-product. Absent the ability to recycle that scrap, the economics and sustainability of magnetics manufacturing is very challenging. Our Stage 2 and 3 teams are working now to define and pilot the optimal point across the entire flow sheet to reintroduce that material.

對我來說，很明顯有一天每個家庭都會有一個機器人，就像電腦和電話一樣。在我看來，無人機和其他形式的電動交通工具最終會變得更加普遍，這似乎很明顯。這些技術和許多其他技術將在未來幾十年推動對永磁體的需求增加。 MP 對世界卓越稀土資源之一的控制是巨大戰略競爭優勢的源泉。我們的第 2 階段和第 3 階段之間的協同作用也非常重要。在製造過程中，多達 30% 到 40% 的磁性材料可能會作為副產品損失掉。由於沒有回收這些廢料的能力，磁性製造的經濟性和可持續性非常具有挑戰性。我們的第 2 階段和第 3 階段團隊現在正在努力在整個流程中定義和試驗最佳點，以重新引入該材料。

They are doing the same with end-of-life magnets. Our vertical integration frees the team to evaluate these fundamental concepts from a first principles perspective. Long term, the importance of recycling and closing the loop is obvious. Developing the know-how and scale to lead this space now is enormously valuable. So to conclude, we are proud of what we achieved this past quarter, and we are very bullish about MP's prospects. We know we have a lot of challenges to overcome in the months ahead as we commission Stage 2 and then begin refining at scale at Mountain Pass. And in what feels like a treacherous economic landscape, we have a cash flowing upstream business and a fortress balance sheet. This really matters as the cost of capital is becoming an even bigger risk for many. Most importantly, we have a strong owner-operator culture that is battle-tested and focused.

他們對報廢的磁鐵也是如此。我們的垂直整合使團隊能夠從第一原則的角度評估這些基本概念。從長遠來看，回收和閉環的重要性是顯而易見的。現在，發展領導這一領域的專業知識和規模是非常有價值的。總而言之，我們為上個季度取得的成就感到自豪，我們非常看好 MP 的前景。我們知道在接下來的幾個月裡，我們要克服很多挑戰，因為我們將調試第 2 階段，然後開始在 Mountain Pass 進行大規模精煉。在看似危險的經濟環境中，我們擁有現金流的上游業務和堡壘資產負債表。這真的很重要，因為資本成本對許多人來說正成為更大的風險。最重要的是，我們擁有經過實戰考驗和專注的強大所有者-運營商文化。

With that, let's open it up for questions. Operator?

有了這個，讓我們打開它來提問。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Corinne Blanchard from Deutsche Bank.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Corinne Blanchard。

My first question would be on 4Q, really focusing on the near term. I think you made pretty clear that volume would be similar to 2Q, just on maintenance. But I would want to get more detail on the pricing that you're seeing. I believe you mentioned 25% sequentially down when looking at spot price. If you can just remind us on the time line that you have at this spot and maybe any color that you can guide on the pricing? And then my second question would be just trying to understand really the timing of the commissioning for Stage 2, if anything that you can give us.

我的第一個問題是關於第四季度的，真正關注的是近期。我認為您已經很清楚地表明，交易量將與第二季度相似，只是在維護中。但我想更詳細地了解您所看到的定價。我相信您在查看現貨價格時提到了連續下跌 25%。如果您可以提醒我們您在這個地點的時間線，或者您可以指導定價的任何顏色？然後我的第二個問題是想真正了解第 2 階段的調試時間，如果你能告訴我們什麼的話。

Corinne, it's Ryan. I'll take the first part and see if Michael has anything to add at the end on commissioning. As it relates to the fourth quarter, you're right. We covered a bit in the prepared remarks, the fact that we expect production to mimic our last non-shutdown quarter. From a sales perspective, I think there's a couple of things to think about, namely we made the point that we will have been and will continue to divert certain product away from sales and into the charging of circuits. It's somewhat impossible to predict exactly what that will look like over the course of the quarter. But to give you a rough sense of how to think about it over time, we could end up taking up to 2 weeks of production for use of charging all of the circuits as we make our way through commissioning. So I would just think about that taking place over time as sort of the permanent investment in working capital that Michael referenced in his remarks. As it relates to pricing, you're right, we did mention what we see at this point if pricing were to hold with a greater than 25% decline in sequential realized pricing. It's a little bit difficult to perfectly match up our concentrate price to the spot price of NdPr you guys see on your screen. It moves very, very similarly, but not perfectly. Obviously, there's a unique and discrete market for concentrate versus oxide. But from what we see at this point, as you guys can see on your screens, both with the Chinese domestic price and the movement in FX, the peak to trough pricing decline was almost 60%. And so when you've got 16 sequentially in this quarter that we just reported here, certainly, we're going to feel the remainder of the impact primarily in Q4. So hopefully, that gives you some color. Michael, I'll flip it over to you if you have any thoughts on Stage 2 timing.

科琳娜，我是瑞恩。我將採取第一部分，看看邁克爾在調試最後是否有什麼要補充的。因為它與第四季度有關，你是對的。我們在準備好的評論中介紹了一些事實，即我們希望生產能夠模仿我們上一個非停產季度。從銷售的角度來看，我認為有幾件事需要考慮，即我們指出我們將一直並將繼續將某些產品從銷售中轉移到電路充電中。很難準確預測本季度的情況。但是，為了讓您大致了解如何隨著時間的推移考慮它，我們最終可能需要長達 2 週的生產時間來為所有電路充電，因為我們正在調試過程中。因此，我只想將隨著時間的推移而發生的這種情況視為邁克爾在講話中提到的對營運資金的永久性投資。因為它與定價有關，你是對的，我們確實提到了我們在這一點上看到的情況，如果定價保持在連續實現定價下降超過 25% 的情況下。要將我們的精礦價格與你們在屏幕上看到的 NdPr 現貨價格完美匹配有點困難。它的移動非常非常相似，但並不完美。顯然，精礦與氧化物之間存在一個獨特且離散的市場。但從我們目前看到的情況來看，正如你們在屏幕上看到的那樣，無論是中國國內價格還是外匯走勢，價格從峰值到谷底的跌幅幾乎為 60%。因此，當我們剛剛在此報告的本季度連續獲得 16 個時，當然，我們將主要在第四季度感受到其餘的影響。所以希望這能給你一些顏色。邁克爾，如果你對第 2 階段的時間安排有任何想法，我會轉給你。

Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Corinne. As we said, we're excited to be starting the commissioning process and soon we'll be converting from somewhat construction mode to all out commissioning. Like we also said, it's difficult to predict the exact trajectory. So I probably can't do it right now. But every day, we're closer to starting to produce oxides.

謝謝，布賴恩。謝謝，科琳娜。正如我們所說，我們很高興開始調試過程，很快我們將從某種建設模式轉變為全面調試。就像我們也說過的，很難預測確切的軌跡。所以我現在可能做不到。但每一天，我們都離開始產生氧化物越來越近了。

I know it's difficult to give like probably like a timing, but are we talking about -- and maybe you have commented it in the previous quarter also, but are we looking at 3 to 6 months, are we looking more like end of next year to be fully commissioned in ramp-up? Or I'm just trying to get an idea there.

我知道很難給出一個時間點，但我們是否在談論——也許你在上一季度也發表了評論，但我們是在看 3 到 6 個月嗎，我們看起來更像是明年年底嗎？全面投產？或者我只是想在那裡得到一個想法。

Corinne, this is Jim. I was just going to say that -- yes, I was going to say, Michael, you and I probably going to say the same thing. But I think the way to think about it is we still remain confident that we're going to reach our run rate goal next year. But we just want to be thoughtful about what the next 3 to 6 months look like. We made clear that this is a transition. We want to be mindful of that. But with everything that we see we remain confident that we're going to hit that run rate. If you want to add in, Mike, go ahead. .

科琳，這是吉姆。我只是想說——是的，我想說，邁克爾，你和我可能會說同樣的話。但我認為考慮它的方式是我們仍然對明年達到我們的運行率目標充滿信心。但我們只是想考慮一下未來 3 到 6 個月的情況。我們明確表示這是一個過渡。我們要注意這一點。但是對於我們所看到的一切，我們仍然有信心達到這個運行速度。如果你想加入，邁克，繼續。 .

That was what I would say.

這就是我要說的。

You were going to say the same thing, yes.

你會說同樣的話，是的。

Our next question comes from Matt Summerville from D.A. Davidson and Co.

我們的下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Matt Summerville。戴維森公司

Jim, in your prepared remarks, you mentioned just the IRA. And I just want to get maybe your most updated views, big picture on how MP is positioned to benefit from a handful of things that have happened legislatively and just the overall policy backdrop, which you at least mentioned, but maybe do a little bit of a deeper dive holistically on all that.

吉姆，在你準備好的發言中，你只提到了愛爾蘭共和軍。我只是想了解您的最新觀點，了解國會議員如何從立法上發生的一些事情中受益的大局，以及您至少提到的整體政策背景，但也許做一點對所有這一切進行更深入的全面了解。

Sure. Thanks, Matt. So there's 2 major provisions of IRA. The first is 45x, which is a 10% operating expense credit for critical materials. And so we're confident that Mountain Pass will be covered by that. So that's a very -- you can look at the expenses there and take 10% and that's that credit, and that's quite a bit of money. So we're excited about that. And by the way, that is a perpetual credit. And so that doesn't sunset, like some of the others mentioned to the bill. The other is a 48C, which is an investment tax credit, which is a 30% credit for supply chain. And so we are looking at that very closely. I would caution in saying that the final regulations aren't out yet so we don't exactly know how it's going to be implemented. But we feel good that we should be able to find an opportunity with all of the stuff we expect to build that, that will be a pretty large benefit for us. And again, that's just 30% of spend. So if, in theory, you go out and spend $1 billion on a magnet facility, a 30% credit would be a $300 million credit. The other thing I would just say, which is we've seen historically, bipartisan introductions of tax credits for permanent magnet production. And so hopefully, after the new year when the new Congress is in, maybe we'll see something on that front as well, which would be an added benefit. So that's sort of the backdrop.

當然。謝謝，馬特。所以愛爾蘭共和軍有兩條主要規定。第一個是 45 倍，這是關鍵材料 10% 的運營費用信用。所以我們有信心山口將被覆蓋。所以這是一個非常 - 你可以看看那裡的費用並拿走 10%，這就是信用，這是相當多的錢。所以我們對此感到興奮。順便說一句，這是一個永久的信用。所以這不會像法案中提到的其他一些人那樣日落。另一個是48C，是投資稅收抵免，對供應鏈來說是30%的抵免。因此，我們正在密切關注這一點。我會謹慎地說，最終的規定還沒有出台，所以我們並不完全知道它將如何實施。但是我們感覺很好，我們應該能夠找到一個機會，利用我們期望構建的所有東西，這對我們來說將是一個很大的好處。再說一次，這只是支出的 30%。因此，從理論上講，如果您在磁鐵設施上花費 10 億美元，那麼 30% 的信貸將是 3 億美元的信貸。我想說的另一件事是，我們在歷史上已經看到，兩黨為永磁生產引入稅收抵免。所以希望，在新的國會召開的新年之後，也許我們也會在這方面看到一些東西，這將是一個額外的好處。這就是背景。

And then just as a follow-up, Ryan, can you help me understand how Stage 2 production costs actually retreated a little bit on a quarter-on-quarter basis? And then is there any sort of bandwidth range or -- that you can maybe help us out with, what you think that might look like in Q4 or into next year, the run rate of those costs?

然後，作為後續行動，Ryan，您能幫我了解第二階段的生產成本實際上是如何逐季度回落的嗎？然後是否有任何類型的帶寬範圍，或者 - 你可以幫助我們，你認為第四季度或明年可能會是什麼樣子，這些成本的運行率？

Sure. The biggest change when you look at things sequentially is moving out of a quarter with a shutdown. So you get sort of the double whammy in quarters where we do our planned turnaround of both lower production and sales generally from a denominator perspective in addition to the fact that you tend to have increased costs from on-site contractors and other maintenance expenses hitting at the same time. So if you sort of track production costs over time, you tend to see that effect between the quarters. So hopefully, that also answers the second part of your question, which is I would look more towards how things looked in the second quarter for the fourth quarter with the understanding that costs have continued to move up over time as we've seen throughout the year. And in addition, as we start to commission Stage 2, we are continuing to bring headcount on pretty rapidly, both specifically at Mountain Pass and elsewhere. So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of a sense of how to think about things sequentially.

當然。當您按順序查看事物時，最大的變化是關閉四分之一。因此，除了您往往會增加現場承包商的成本和其他維護費用的事實外，您通常會從分母的角度來看，在我們計劃的減少生產和銷售的周轉過程中，您會受到雙重打擊同時。因此，如果您隨著時間的推移跟踪生產成本，您往往會在季度之間看到這種影響。因此，希望這也回答了您問題的第二部分，即我會更多地關注第四季度第二季度的情況，並理解成本隨著時間的推移而持續上升，正如我們在整個年。此外，隨著我們開始啟用第 2 階段，我們將繼續快速增加員工人數，尤其是在山口和其他地方。所以希望這能讓你對如何按順序思考事情有所了解。

Our next question comes from Robin Fiedler from BMO Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 BMO Capital Markets 的 Robin Fiedler。

Question on CapEx. Maybe you can elaborate on what exactly caused the pushout for spending for some of the Stage 3 long lead items there. And does that mean that maybe the commissioning might be pushed out a bit as well, at least for the metals and alloys part of it?

關於資本支出的問題。也許您可以詳細說明究竟是什麼原因導致了那裡的一些第 3 階段長期領先項目的支出被推出。這是否意味著調試可能也會被推遲一點，至少對於其中的金屬和合金部分？

Robin, it's Ryan. I can take that. I would not read at all into the timing of capital as relating to any change in schedule. We obviously have to make a lot of assumptions pretty far out when we set our overall capital guidance for the year. And given the scale of projects that we've got going on, it's often difficult to be able to predict whether a cash payment is going to hit on 12/31 or January 1, and that obviously makes a big difference for capturing the calendar year. And so what I'd say in terms of the way to think about CapEx for the remainder of this year and sort of why the bit of a pushout is -- as we complete the Stage 2 commissioning, as you'd expect from us, we are pretty maniacally focused on maintaining retentions and holdbacks in areas as we get to the finish line. And so all that means is that in areas where we're putting the finishing touches on, you will actually see the cash come probably right after that. So that drives some of the effect. And then as well for the Stage 3 long lead equipment we just have not had the same level of requirements for upfront down payments on some of these long lead items as we've seen in the past and as we had seen in Stage 2. And so we continue to make very good progress. We have no change in expectations from a timing perspective at this point. but it's purely a timing of cash flow as opposed to a real change in schedule.

羅賓，我是瑞恩。我可以接受。我根本不會將資本的時間安排解讀為與時間表的任何變化有關。當我們設定今年的總體資本指導時，我們顯然必須做出很多假設。鑑於我們正在進行的項目規模，通常很難預測現金支付是在 12 月 31 日還是 1 月 1 日，這顯然對捕捉日曆年有很大的影響.所以我要說的是關於今年剩餘時間的資本支出的思考方式，以及為什麼會有一點點推出——當我們完成第二階段調試時，正如你所期望的那樣，當我們到達終點線時，我們非常瘋狂地專注於保持區域的保留和阻礙。所以這意味著，在我們正在收尾的領域，你實際上會看到現金可能就在那之後到來。所以這會產生一些影響。然後，對於第 3 階段的長鉛設備，我們對其中一些長鉛項目的預付款要求與我們過去和第 2 階段看到的不同。所以我們繼續取得很好的進展。從時間的角度來看，我們目前的預期沒有變化。但這純粹是現金流的時間安排，而不是時間表的真正變化。

Okay. And just as a follow-up, this is a bit more of a forward-looking question. But with everything going on, on the legislative support and what could be coming from that, how do you think about -- this is early to say, but scaling out the magnet business across the deck, I know, Jim, you talked about goals for potentially 10,000 a ton at some point of magnets. With -- again, with what's going on the political support, is there an added incentive to maybe speed that up, assuming that things go smoothly initially?

好的。作為後續，這是一個更具前瞻性的問題。但是隨著一切的進展，立法支持以及可能產生的結果，你怎麼想 - 現在說還為時過早，但是我知道，吉姆，你談到了目標在某些磁鐵點上可能達到每噸 10,000 噸。再一次，在政治支持的情況下，假設事情最初進展順利，是否有可能加快這一進程的額外動力？

Yes. Thanks, Robin. So here's what I would say. We -- and this goes back, obviously, the last few months, the rancour, if you will, about getting the supply chain home and expanded, just continues to grow with everything we see legislatively, geopolitically, et cetera. But it's also been that way for a while. We have not been demand constrained, so to speak. The level of demand just continues to grow, but demand has not been our constraint. Really, the key constraint is execution. There's a lot of people out there that like to talk. We like to build stuff and get it done right. And so we just -- we are moving as quickly as we possibly can, but making sure that we get things done right. And if you just think back, and I know you probably heard me say this a couple of times. But when we went public a couple of years ago, we made clear that we thought the magnetics business was certainly a key strategic vision, but a 2025-plus event. And now look at Slide 11, it's November of 2022, and we've got the shell built. I mean, so I think on every front, we've been really accelerating this mission, and we'll continue to do so. And as the demand grows, obviously that makes -- that increases the value of -- the strategic value of what we have, but also just the value of all of our in-place assets. So we will keep at it.

是的。謝謝，羅賓。所以這就是我要說的。我們——顯然，這可以追溯到過去幾個月，如果你願意的話，關於讓供應鏈回家並擴大的怨恨只會隨著我們在立法、地緣政治等方面看到的一切而繼續增長。但這也有一段時間了。可以這麼說，我們並沒有受到需求的限制。需求水平只是繼續增長，但需求並沒有成為我們的製約因素。實際上，關鍵約束是執行。外面有很多人喜歡說話。我們喜歡建造東西並把它做好。所以我們只是——我們盡可能快地行動，但要確保我們把事情做好。如果你回想一下，我知道你可能聽我說過幾次。但是，當我們幾年前上市時，我們明確表示我們認為磁性業務無疑是一個關鍵的戰略願景，而是一個 2025 年以上的事件。現在看看幻燈片 11，現在是 2022 年 11 月，我們已經構建好了外殼。我的意思是，所以我認為在各個方面，我們一直在加速這項任務，我們將繼續這樣做。隨著需求的增長，顯然這增加了我們所擁有資產的戰略價值，而且也增加了我們所有現有資產的價值。所以我們會堅持下去。

The next question comes from Carlos De Alba from Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Carlos De Alba。

So a couple of questions on -- so the -- could you comment on the trends that you expect to see on the feed grade and recovery in Stage 1. Obviously, things are as you mentioned, are going to be bumpy, but just -- you alluded to that in your comments around production. What should we expect in the coming quarters?

所以有幾個問題——所以——你能評論一下你期望在第一階段看到的飼料等級和恢復的趨勢嗎？顯然，正如你所提到的，事情將是坎坷的，但只是—— - 你在關於生產的評論中提到了這一點。未來幾個季度我們應該期待什麼？

Thanks, Carlos. I guess I would just start by saying we're pretty pleased with the production in the second -- in the third quarter. It was the second best quarter ever compared to last third quarter's record and that our current production is consistent with our 6,000 ton NdPr plans. As you mentioned, this quarter -- this year, third quarter had slightly lower feed grade compared to last. I think we mentioned in relation to the SK 1300 that we're looking to long term optimize the value of our reserve base, and that does include including some additional lower grade material in our feed. But we have a good idea of what will come out of the ground over the next 35 years. But what comes out in any one period and what we blend to, while in a relatively tight band, varies slightly quarter-to-quarter. But we're always working to optimize our reagents and our processes and experimenting. Some periods, everything comes together perfectly, some periods it's just more normal. But in general we're going to continue to improve on an apples-to-apples basis. So I would say the same is true this quarter. We -- compared to where we would have been with the same type of feed in the past, this quarter was better. And I've mentioned a couple of times in the past, we're really optimistic -- we are optimistic about the ability to continue to improve our concentrate volume -- production volume as well as quality. So we would expect that to continue in a non -- also in a nonlinear fashion, A little bit of ups and downs, but generally we're getting better.

謝謝，卡洛斯。我想我會首先說我們對第二季度的生產非常滿意 - 在第三季度。與去年第三季度的記錄相比，這是有史以來第二好的季度，我們目前的產量與我們的 6,000 噸 NdPr 計劃一致。正如您所提到的，本季度 - 今年第三季度的飼料等級與去年相比略低。我認為我們在 SK 1300 方面提到了我們正在尋求長期優化我們儲備基礎的價值，這確實包括在我們的飼料中加入一些額外的低品位材料。但我們很清楚未來 35 年會發生什麼。但是，在任何一個時期出現的內容以及我們所融合的內容，雖然在一個相對緊湊的範圍內，但每個季度都會略有不同。但我們一直在努力優化我們的試劑、工藝和實驗。有些時期，一切都完美地結合在一起，有些時期只是更正常。但總的來說，我們將繼續在蘋果對蘋果的基礎上進行改進。所以我想說本季度也是如此。我們 - 與過去使用相同類型的飼料相比，本季度更好。我過去曾多次提到，我們非常樂觀——我們對繼續提高精礦量的能力——產量和質量持樂觀態度。因此，我們預計這種情況會以非 - 也以非線性方式繼續，有點起起落落，但總的來說我們正在變得更好。

All right. And does this affect your realized pricing in any way? Or are you able to concentrate the lower feed to the traditional average standard that you typically do?

好的。這是否會以任何方式影響您的實際定價？或者您是否能夠將較低的飼料集中到您通常使用的傳統平均標準？

Yes, Carlos, we generally price on a contained REO. Sure -- sorry, Mike, just to talk about pricing specifically. The metrics that you see are on contained REO, which obviously is what people are after and what we get paid on. And so I wouldn't expect any of the changes to impact a price on a per ton of REO basis. So Mike, if you want to add anything else, please go ahead.

是的，卡洛斯，我們通常對包含的 REO 進行定價。當然 - 對不起，邁克，我只是專門談談定價。您看到的指標包含在 REO 上，這顯然是人們所追求的以及我們獲得報酬的依據。因此，我預計任何變化都不會影響每噸 REO 的價格。所以邁克，如果你想添加任何其他內容，請繼續。

Yes. I guess part of the improvement we make is the ability to upgrade to the same or higher rare concentrate grade irrespective of what the feed grade is.

是的。我想我們所做的部分改進是能夠升級到相同或更高的稀有精礦等級，而不管飼料等級是多少。

All right. Excellent. And just last question from me is can you comment on how the restart of the combined heat and power plant is going? And if you see the impact on energy cost that you mentioned in the press release, continue? Or is this just more something that you saw in the third quarter and we should not count on that repeating in the coming quarters?

好的。出色的。我的最後一個問題是，您能否評論一下熱電聯產電廠的重啟情況？如果您看到您在新聞稿中提到的對能源成本的影響，請繼續？或者這只是你在第三季度看到的更多事情，我們不應該指望在接下來的幾個季度重複？

I can talk operationally, Ryan, if you want to handle the cost. We began operating the site of the combined heat and power plant in the first quarter of this year. It was a pretty large and in-depth process of recommissioning, but we're really pleased with how it's operating. It's operated very reliably. It's provided also steam to our process. So we're really pleased with how it's going. We look forward to it supplying the Stage 2 assets as well when and as we're commissioning them.

Ryan，如果你想處理成本，我可以談談操作。我們於今年第一季度開始運營熱電聯產廠址。這是一個相當大而深入的重新調試過程，但我們對它的運行方式感到非常滿意。它運行非常可靠。它還為我們的工藝提供了蒸汽。所以我們對它的進展感到非常滿意。我們期待它在我們調試它們的時間和過程中提供第 2 階段的資產。

And from a cost perspective, Carlos, part of what you actually saw on a quarter-over-quarter basis in the element of the cost that we flagged as sort of pre-stage 2 commissioning costs is the fact that we were able actually to bring down our cost per MMBtu pretty significantly quarter-over-quarter by looking at managing our natural gas exposure and hedges. And so from that perspective, that was part of the reason that was brought in a bit. But in general, what would you see is we are operating the CHP somewhat purposefully and efficiently at this point by overproducing due to the fact that we wanted to get this asset, to Michael's point, ready and operating very reliably ahead of bringing the Stage 2 assets online. And so we have to purposefully really run it on a derated basis, which drives some level of inefficiency. And so that inefficiency will decline as we bring the load from Stage 2 online.

從成本的角度來看，Carlos，您在我們標記為第 2 階段前調試成本的成本要素中實際看到的季度環比成本的一部分是我們實際上能夠帶來通過管理我們的天然氣風險敞口和對沖，我們的每 MMBtu 成本環比顯著下降。所以從這個角度來看，這也是引入的部分原因。但總的來說，你會看到我們在這一點上通過過度生產有點有目的地和有效地運行 CHP，因為我們希望得到這個資產，就邁克爾的觀點而言，在推出第 2 階段之前準備好並非常可靠地運行在線資產。因此，我們必須有目的地在降級的基礎上真正運行它，這會導致某種程度的低效率。因此，隨著我們將第 2 階段的負載上線，低效率將會下降。

All right. Excellent. And congratulations on the commissioning -- the start of the commission of Stage 2.

好的。出色的。並祝賀調試——第二階段調試的開始。

Yes. Thank you, Carlos. Next question .

是的。謝謝你，卡洛斯。下一個問題 。

Our next question comes from George Gianarikas from Canaccord Genuity.

我們的下一個問題來自 Canaccord Genuity 的 George Gianarikas。

I was wondering if you could possibly update us on your -- as we're approaching Stage 2 on your offtake agreements for oxide going forward? I mean can you help us understand where your oxide will land geographically? Is it mostly China? Is it outside of China? Any color would be appreciated.

我想知道您是否可以向我們更新您的 - 因為我們正在接近您的氧化物承購協議的第 2 階段？我的意思是你能幫助我們了解你的氧化物在地理上會落在哪裡嗎？主要是中國嗎？是在中國以外嗎？任何顏色都將不勝感激。

Sure. George, it's Ryan. I can start this off. We continue to see really strong demand for our oxide. Obviously, we've been on this mission to bring separated products to the United States for many years now. We're very excited that we're well on our way to that. And we see no impediments to selling our Stage 2 products. And key to our mission really is developing the ex-China supply chain. In some ways, that takes time. But at the same time, we continue to see really strong interest for ex-China customers. As you're well aware, there remains an ex-China magnet business, predominantly in Japan, and we continue to see strong demand for our product there. And a growing ex-China market who, frankly, are relatively starved for diversity of supply. They've had one answer to date. And so we feel good about executing into that opportunity. Obviously, there will be a mix of destinations that our products will go to. And over time, of course, hopefully, more and more of our oxide will be used in our own vertical integration strategy. So we continue to see a nice and exciting market opportunity ex-China. We obviously will have a mix of sales into China and certainly, we'll grow our own vertical business as well.

當然。喬治，我是瑞恩。我可以開始這個了。我們繼續看到對我們氧化物的強勁需求。顯然，多年來，我們一直致力於將分離的產品帶到美國。我們很高興我們正在努力實現這一目標。我們認為銷售我們的第 2 階段產品沒有任何障礙。我們使命的關鍵是發展中國以外的供應鏈。在某些方面，這需要時間。但與此同時，我們繼續看到前中國客戶的濃厚興趣。如您所知，中國以外的磁鐵業務仍然存在，主要在日本，我們繼續看到那裡對我們產品的強勁需求。坦率地說，一個不斷增長的中國以外市場相對缺乏供應的多樣性。迄今為止，他們只有一個答案。所以我們對抓住這個機會感覺很好。顯然，我們的產品將前往多個目的地。當然，隨著時間的推移，我們希望越來越多的氧化物將用於我們自己的垂直整合戰略。因此，我們繼續看到中國以外的美好而令人興奮的市場機會。我們顯然會在中國進行多種銷售，當然，我們也會發展自己的垂直業務。

And if I could just with 1 follow-up. Any visibility on China quotas. Obviously, this year, we already know what happened. They increased by 25%. I'm curious because it's opaque, if you could help us understand a little bit how you see that progressing over the next few years to the extent you have thoughts on that? And what sort of capacity you see them having over the next, call it, 2 to 3 years?

如果我可以進行 1 次跟進。中國配額的任何可見性。顯然，今年，我們已經知道發生了什麼。他們增加了 25%。我很好奇，因為它是不透明的，如果你能幫助我們了解一下你如何看待未來幾年的進展，你對此有什麼想法嗎？你認為他們在接下來的 2 到 3 年內擁有什麼樣的能力？

Sure. So China, as -- you hit the nail on the head with China is opaque. It's always hard to fully understand what is going on there. We do think they'll continue to move quota reasonably with their industrial demand. You may have heard me talk about this, but just to kind of clarify or reiterate, we've seen what we believe is a sea change in the general industrial psychology, where if you kind of think about the last 10 years versus the forward 10 years. The key focus is making sure that there's enough product for their downstream, particularly as you see some of the major manufacturers expanding globally. There were some announcements this quarter actually about some of the Chinese OEMs launching sales in Germany. And so I think the way -- I mean this is -- again, this is our house view, it's opaque, but I think the way to think about it is that, that quota will probably grow comfortably with Chinese industry. But then the question is and why we're so confident that we have such a tremendous opportunity here is that the rest of the world demand -- supply chain demand is going to need a home. And so when we think about that math with respect to what we produce and the availability and how challenging it is to get things online, we feel very confident that -- again, it's a commodity. So I say that with all of the usual caveats I say, but we feel very confident that pricing will be stable and continue to grow quite a bit. And so again, for what our opinion is worth on that, we just think there's so much ex-China growth to happen that it's a very bullish backdrop for our business. Of course, this quarter, last quarter, China has essentially shut down. Europe is obviously in a very deep recession. And so you've seen this pullback, but I think that whatever the extent of this pullback in prices that we see out there, it just creates. It's sort of reflective of it just creates the jump back effect for when things get going again, demand-wise, that snapback should be pretty powerful.

當然。所以中國，因為你一針見血，中國是不透明的。總是很難完全理解那裡發生了什麼。我們確實認為他們將繼續根據工業需求合理調整配額。你可能聽過我談論這個，但為了澄清或重申，我們已經看到我們認為一般工業心理學發生了翻天覆地的變化，如果你想想過去 10 年與前 10 年的對比年。重點是確保下游有足夠的產品，特別是當您看到一些主要製造商在全球擴張時。本季度有一些公告實際上是關於一些中國原始設備製造商在德國開始銷售的。所以我認為這種方式——我的意思是——再一次，這是我們的房子視圖，它是不透明的，但我認為考慮它的方式是，這個配額可能會隨著中國工業的增長而舒適地增長。但接下來的問題是，為什麼我們如此有信心在這裡擁有如此巨大的機會是因為世界其他地區的需求——供應鏈需求將需要一個家。因此，當我們考慮關於我們生產的產品和可用性的數學以及將東西放到網上的挑戰時，我們感到非常有信心 - 再次，它是一種商品。因此，我說了所有通常的警告，但我們非常有信心定價將保持穩定並繼續大幅增長。再說一次，就我們的觀點而言，我們只是認為中國以外地區將出現如此多的增長，這對我們的業務來說是一個非常樂觀的背景。當然，這個季度，上個季度，中國基本上已經停擺了。歐洲顯然處於非常嚴重的衰退之中。所以你已經看到了這種回調，但我認為無論我們看到的價格回調幅度有多大，它都會造成。這有點反映了它只是在事情再次開始時創造了跳回效果，從需求角度來看，回彈應該非常強大。

And the next question comes from Lawson Winder from BofA Securities.

下一個問題來自美國銀行證券的 Lawson Winder。

I wanted to ask about the natural gas hedges. It seems like those were a very timely and wise thing to do. Can you share any color on the tenors, volumes or percent of total volume and price to which those were implied?

我想問一下天然氣對沖。這些似乎是一件非常及時和明智的事情。你能分享一下這些暗示的期限、交易量或占總交易量和價格的百分比嗎？

Well, thank you for the kind words about our management of costs there. Ryan, if you want to give some color, we haven't disclosed a lot on that, but why don't you maybe just help contextualize what that is.

好吧，感謝您對我們那裡的成本管理的客氣話。瑞安，如果你想給點顏色，我們還沒有透露很多，但你為什麼不幫助把它放在上下文中。

Sure. I'd say that we locked in probably about half of our demand today, which would step down a bit to about 1/3 of our demand over the next couple of months as we start to commission things. Relatively attractive prices in sort of the low-to mid $5 per MMBtu. We've also looked at certain incremental hedges starting once our demand for gas starts to pick back up that would sort of bring us back up to roughly half hedged in a similar -- at a similar price point. Those are about 3 years in duration. And so overall, when you sort of look across the board, that's kind of roughly what I would think about.

當然。我想說我們今天鎖定了大約一半的需求，隨著我們開始調試，在接下來的幾個月裡，這將下降到我們需求的 1/3 左右。相對有吸引力的價格在每 MMBtu 5 美元的中低檔。一旦我們對天然氣的需求開始回升，我們還研究了某些增量對沖，這將使我們在類似的價格點恢復到大約一半的對沖。這些是大約3年的持續時間。所以總的來說，當你全面看待時，這就是我大致會想到的。

Okay. That's great. Very helpful. And then from this point forward, do you have any sort of sense on a per unit of NdPr, where you think the sort of cost will settle out once you're up and running. So maybe 2024, 2025?

好的。那太棒了。非常有幫助。然後從這一點開始，您對每單位 NdPr 是否有任何感覺，您認為一旦您啟動並運行，這種成本就會解決。那麼也許是 2024 年、2025 年？

Yes, Lawson, we haven't updated any of our sort of outlook or guidance on that. I'd continue to point you to the context that we've given over time and -- when we initially went public. So we don't have anything sort of more specific to point to at this point. Obviously, there are lots of puts and takes there. Certain input prices have changed quite a bit. Our efficiency has gotten better. And so certainly, puts and takes and a lot of known unknowns. But at this point, I would stick to what we've already put out there. .

是的，勞森，我們還沒有更新我們對此的任何展望或指導。我將繼續向您指出我們隨著時間的推移提供的背景以及 - 當我們最初上市時。因此，目前我們沒有任何更具體的內容可以指出。顯然，那裡有很多看跌期權。某些投入價格發生了很大變化。我們的效率提高了。當然，投入和投入以及許多已知的未知數。但在這一點上，我會堅持我們已經發布的內容。 .

The next question comes from David Deckelbaum from Cowen.

下一個問題來自 Cowen 的 David Deckelbaum。

Jim, I'm actually interested in hearing some of your thoughts on just some macro movements right now. Have you seen any behavior changing on the part of Chinese refiners with where they'd be sourcing feedstock from or attempting to -- preparing for MP processing their own concentrate and separating their own at Mountain Pass?

吉姆，我現在真的很想听聽你對一些宏觀運動的想法。您是否看到中國煉油廠的行為發生了任何變化，他們將從哪裡採購或試圖從哪裡採購原料——準備 MP 加工他們自己的精礦並在 Mountain Pass 分離他們自己的精礦？

David, so great question. I think it's just so opaque in China right now given the fact that things are mainly shut down. We historically have seen and haven't seen any change in the fact of there are a number of refiners that want our product. And so obviously, at any point in time, there's a number of that are bidding for our product. As far as how some of those businesses will react when they don't have our product. I don't really -- we don't really have a good color into that. And certainly, I would imagine it's top of mind. And it's certainly a concern and it means that our product will come out of the overall -- obviously, when we switch on and are making oxides, that will come out of the current market there. But we don't really have good color into what people might be doing specifically other than I would say that historically, we have a lot of people who reach out to us, wanting various things, offtakes -- long-term offtakes or whatnot and that remains the case, but nothing major has changed on that front recently.

大衛，這麼好的問題。鑑於事情主要是關閉的，我認為現在在中國它是如此不透明。從歷史上看，我們已經看到並且沒有看到有許多煉油廠想要我們的產品這一事實發生任何變化。很明顯，在任何時候，都有很多人在競標我們的產品。至於其中一些企業在沒有我們的產品時會如何反應。我真的沒有——我們真的沒有很好的顏色。當然，我想這是最重要的。這當然是一個問題，這意味著我們的產品將從整體中脫穎而出 - 顯然，當我們打開並製造氧化物時，它將從那裡的當前市場中脫穎而出。但是我們並沒有真正了解人們可能具體做什麼，除了我想說的是，從歷史上看，我們有很多人向我們伸出援手，想要各種各樣的東西，承接——長期承接或諸如此類的東西情況仍然如此，但最近在這方面沒有任何重大變化。

Fair enough. And speaking of people reaching out to you, just wanted to ask on Stage 3. Obviously, you have an anchor customer with GM as you guys have built this facility and very impressive timing, at least in the shell, we talked about all the IRA incentives that accelerate potentially Stage 3. It sounds like you're getting inbounds from potentially interested customers. Are all of those customers, one, coming from the automotive segment. And two, how are these customers? Do they ever bring up the price and how they're thinking about what they would be willing to pay relative to global baskets? Or is it just specific to what they would agree to pay you on sort of a negotiated thesis?

很公平。說到與您聯繫的人，只是想在第 3 階段詢問。顯然，您在通用汽車有一個主要客戶，因為你們已經建立了這個設施，而且時機非常令人印象深刻，至少在外殼上，我們談到了所有 IRA可能加速第 3 階段的激勵措施。聽起來您正在從潛在感興趣的客戶那裡獲得入站信息。所有這些客戶都來自汽車領域嗎？第二，這些客戶怎麼樣？他們是否曾經提出過價格以及他們如何考慮相對於全球籃子他們願意支付的價格？或者它只是特定於他們同意在某種協商論文中支付給你的費用？

Yes. Sure. So what I would say on that is it's definitely not just auto. It's a number of the verticals. I mentioned some of the key ones, but it's a variety of verticals, whether it's wind or some of the others, even some that you might not expect so much. So there's definitely a diversity of reach out and parties who want to understand what it would take to buy from us and are getting educated and lots of conversations that we're having with a variety of them. I would say that there's certainly a range. It's -- we have noticed a material change over the last year, certainly even just in the last 6 months, where before there was -- I think post-COVID and the semiconductor shock, there, obviously was a lot of interest. Then Russia, Ukraine happened and a lot of the supply chains have not gotten better. And I think that the practical reality of deglobalization is really setting in and a lot more of the companies than -- aside from, frankly, just like the GMs that were sort of the first thinkers on this. And so there's a lot of discussion and interest and then, of course, the IRA bill set that into added interest. And we feel like we're in a great position in these conversations because we have a unique amount of product, and there's only so much we can execute. And so we -- and I know you've heard me say this, but I think it's just really worth repeating is that we believe that our constraint is only in our time and our ability to execute, and we want to execute in a very high return on capital thoughtful way. We want to make sure that the Stage 3 business is not robbing Peter to pay Paul, where we have an attractive product, and we want to make sure that we capture that value. But then if we're going to make investments downstream, we should have a very attractive return on that capital. And frankly, no one really disputes that. I think that when you have conversations with people, people understand that if we're going to invest capital, we should get a return on that. And we've positioned the company to have the fortress balance sheet that we have -- and so we're -- we don't need to -- sometimes you'll see people have to enter into deals that maybe are half deal, half financing. And we just don't have those considerations. We've positioned the company to think solely about what are the most thoughtful ways of buy building and/or JV-ing to get this done right. And so that's a long-winded way of saying we continue at this. It's not a demand constraint. It's just what we think we can thoughtfully execute for our customers and partners. And I've made it very clear that I believe that one day, our magnetics business will exceed the current expected implied output of today. So when you say -- if you look at our 2023 run rate number and you say that, that could be a 10,000 ton magnet business, just give or take, kind of spit balling -- there is no reason why we couldn't grow a business beyond that once we develop the leadership that I think we are developing in the magnetics business. Again, that will take a lot of time, but the team is really amazing and growing by the day. And I think, again, just back to the Slide 11, I'm very proud of if we just think about everything that's happening in this world and you look at on the left there's and empty field, on the right we've got now the shell. And now there's a lot of hard work to go. I don't mean to belittle that, but we are moving really quickly and just building the scale that will give us leadership in this space in the West -- really globally. So I hope that answers your question.

是的。當然。所以我要說的是它絕對不僅僅是汽車。這是一些垂直領域。我提到了一些關鍵的，但它是各種垂直領域，無論是風還是其他一些，甚至是你可能不會期待太多的一些。因此，肯定有各種各樣的接觸和各方想要了解從我們這裡購買需要什麼，並且正在接受教育，並且我們與他們進行了很多對話。我會說肯定有一個範圍。這是 - 我們注意到去年發生了重大變化，當然甚至只是在過去 6 個月中，以前有過 - 我認為後 COVID 和半導體衝擊顯然引起了很多興趣。然後俄羅斯，烏克蘭發生了，很多供應鏈都沒有好轉。而且我認為，去全球化的實際現實確實正在出現，而且還有更多的公司——坦率地說，除了那些在這方面最早思考過的通用汽車公司。所以有很多討論和興趣，當然，愛爾蘭共和軍法案將其設置為額外的興趣。而且我們覺得我們在這些對話中處於有利位置，因為我們擁有獨特數量的產品，我們可以執行的只有這麼多。所以我們——我知道你已經聽過我這麼說，但我認為真正值得重複的是，我們相信我們的限制只在於我們的時間和我們的執行能力，我們希望以非常高資本回報方式周到。我們希望確保第 3 階段的業務不會搶劫彼得向保羅付款，因為我們擁有有吸引力的產品，並且我們希望確保我們獲得該價值。但是，如果我們要在下游進行投資，我們應該從該資本中獲得非常有吸引力的回報。坦率地說，沒有人真正質疑這一點。我認為當你與人交談時，人們會明白，如果我們要投資資本，我們應該得到回報。而且我們已經將公司定位為擁有我們擁有的堡壘資產負債表 - 所以我們 - 我們不需要 - 有時你會看到人們必須達成可能是一半交易的交易，一半融資。我們只是沒有這些考慮。我們已將公司定位為只考慮購買建築和/或合資企業的最周到的方式來完成這項工作。所以這是一種冗長的說法，我們會繼續這樣做。這不是需求限制。這正是我們認為我們可以為我們的客戶和合作夥伴精心執行的。而且我已經非常明確地表示，我相信有一天，我們的磁性業務將超過當前預期的今天的隱含產量。因此，當您說-如果您查看我們的 2023 年運行速度數字並且您說，那可能是 10,000 噸磁鐵業務，只是給予或接受，有點吐球 - 我們沒有理由不能成長一旦我們發展出我認為我們在磁性業務中正在發展的領導力，我們就會超越這個業務。再一次，這將需要很多時間，但團隊真的很棒並且每天都在成長。我想，再一次，回到幻燈片 11，如果我們想想這個世界上正在發生的一切，我感到非常自豪貝殼。現在還有很多艱苦的工作要做。我並不是要貶低這一點，但我們正在迅速行動，並且正在建立規模，這將使我們在西方這個領域——真正是全球範圍內——擁有領導地位。所以我希望這能回答你的問題。

It does. And good luck with the rest of the commission and final construction.

確實如此。祝其餘的佣金和最終建設好運。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

This concludes our Q&A session for today, so I will hand the call back to Jim Litinsky for closing remarks.

今天的問答環節到此結束，所以我將把電話交還給 Jim Litinsky 以作閉幕詞。

Okay. Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone. It was a great quarter, and we've got a lot to do. So we'll get back to work and everyone, have a great night. Thank you. .

好的。謝謝接線員，謝謝大家。這是一個很棒的季度，我們有很多事情要做。所以我們會回去工作，每個人，有一個美好的夜晚。謝謝你。 .

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。您現在可以斷開線路。