Explore Chalice Mining's Fair Values from the Community and select yours

Just because a business does not make any money, does not mean that the stock will go down. For example, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. Let's start with an examination of the business' cash, relative to its cash burn.

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How Long Is Chalice Mining's Cash Runway?

A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. In December 2024, Chalice Mining had AU$90m in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was AU$24m over the trailing twelve months. That means it had a cash runway of about 3.7 years as of December 2024. Importantly, analysts think that Chalice Mining will reach cashflow breakeven in 5 years. Essentially, that means the company will either reduce its cash burn, or else require more cash. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.ASX:CHN Debt to Equity History August 14th 2025

Check out our latest analysis for Chalice Mining

How Is Chalice Mining's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Whilst it's great to see that Chalice Mining has already begun generating revenue from operations, last year it only produced AU$446k, so we don't think it is generating significant revenue, at this point. As a result, we think it's a bit early to focus on the revenue growth, so we'll limit ourselves to looking at how the cash burn is changing over time. Notably, its cash burn was actually down by 60% in the last year, which is a real positive in terms of resilience, but uninspiring when it comes to investment for growth. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. For that reason, it makes a lot of sense to take a look at our analyst forecasts for the company.

Can Chalice Mining Raise More Cash Easily?

While we're comforted by the recent reduction evident from our analysis of Chalice Mining's cash burn, it is still worth considering how easily the company could raise more funds, if it wanted to accelerate spending to drive growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash and drive growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).

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Since it has a market capitalisation of AU$656m, Chalice Mining's AU$24m in cash burn equates to about 3.7% of its market value. Given that is a rather small percentage, it would probably be really easy for the company to fund another year's growth by issuing some new shares to investors, or even by taking out a loan.

How Risky Is Chalice Mining's Cash Burn Situation?

As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Chalice Mining's cash burn. For example, we think its cash runway suggests that the company is on a good path. And even its cash burn reduction was very encouraging. Shareholders can take heart from the fact that analysts are forecasting it will reach breakeven. Taking all the factors in this report into account, we're not at all worried about its cash burn, as the business appears well capitalized to spend as needs be. On another note, Chalice Mining has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is a bit unpleasant) we think you should know about.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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