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Note 1 - Business
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2020
Notes to Financial Statements  
BUSINESS

Ramaco Resources, Inc.

Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

NOTE 1—BUSINESS

Ramaco Resources, Inc. (the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our,”) is a Delaware corporation formed in October 2016. Our principal corporate offices are located in Lexington, Kentucky. We are an operator and developer of high-quality, low-cost metallurgical coal in southern West Virginia, southwestern Virginia, and southwestern Pennsylvania.

Response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic on Our Business— The global spread of COVID-19 has created significant volatility, uncertainty and economic disruption during the first six months of 2020. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have placed significant restrictions on both domestic and international travel and have taken action to restrict the movement of people and suspend some business operations, ranging from targeted restrictions to full national lockdowns. These lockdown and stay-at-home measures, coupled with the spread and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in an increase in the U.S. unemployment rate in May of this year to 13%. Recently, states that had begun taking steps to reopen their economies experienced a subsequent surge in cases of COVID-19, causing these states to cease such reopening measures in some cases and reinstitute restrictions in others.

The Company has been adversely affected by the deterioration and increased uncertainty in the macroeconomic outlook as a result of the impact of COVID-19. Two customers have notified us that their contractual obligations for the purchase of metallurgical coal from us will be delayed or curtailed because of COVID-19. These delays or curtailments are expected to reduce our total contracted sales volumes for 2020 by up to 12%.

We are not able to estimate the impact of customer delays or curtailments of their contractual obligations or our ability to secure additional sales in spot markets. We have observed a declining demand for and reductions in the spot price of metallurgical coal as business and consumer activity decelerates across the globe. This weakness limited our ability to complete spot sales in the first and second quarters of 2020, leading to an increase in our inventories.

In response, we have taken certain actions to limit our production and reduce capital expenditures. These actions have included:

·

a two week operational furlough of 203 employees at the Elk Creek mining complex in West Virginia in April 2020;  

·

temporary reductions in the salaries of certain executives, including our named executive officers, by 30% beginning April 1, 2020, and deferral of the payment of cash bonuses for 2019 performance for these individuals;

·

the partial closure of our Berwind low volatile development mine complex affecting approximately 44 jobs in July 2020; and

·

a reduction or deferral of non-essential capital expenditures to adapt to the current market conditions.

 

To date we have not had significant issues with any of our critical suppliers, but we continue to communicate with them and closely monitor their developments to ensure we have access to the goods and services required to maintain our operations.

The Company borrowed an additional $13.2 million under two promissory notes to further improve our liquidity, as further discussed in Notes 4 and 5. Securing this funding was key to limiting the employee furlough period in April 2020, retaining a greater number of employees and maintaining payroll.

We continue to actively monitor the situation and may take further actions altering our business operations that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, customers, suppliers, and stakeholders, or as required by federal, state, or local authorities. Additional measures we may take could include extensions of operational furloughs and temporary salary reductions for certain executives, staffing reductions and idling or realignment of additional mines as conditions might dictate. It is not clear what the potential effects any such alterations or modifications may have on our business. The impact on our results in future periods could be much more significant and cannot currently be quantified.