We’re Not Very Worried About Stillwater Critical Minerals’ (CVE:PGE) Cash Burn Rate

There’s no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

So should Stillwater Critical Minerals (CVE:PGE) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? For the purpose of this article, we’ll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its ‘cash runway’.

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When Might Stillwater Critical Minerals Run Out Of Money?

A company’s cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. In December 2025, Stillwater Critical Minerals had CA$17m in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was CA$8.4m. Therefore, from December 2025 it had 2.0 years of cash runway. Arguably, that’s a prudent and sensible length of runway to have. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

See our latest analysis for Stillwater Critical Minerals

How Is Stillwater Critical Minerals’ Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Stillwater Critical Minerals didn’t record any revenue over the last year, indicating that it’s an early stage company still developing its business. So while we can’t look to sales to understand growth, we can look at how the cash burn is changing to understand how expenditure is trending over time. The skyrocketing cash burn up 106% year on year certainly tests our nerves. That sort of spending growth rate can’t continue for very long before it causes balance sheet weakness, generally speaking. Stillwater Critical Minerals makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. So we’d generally prefer stocks from this list of stocks that have analysts forecasting growth.

Can Stillwater Critical Minerals Raise More Cash Easily?

While Stillwater Critical Minerals does have a solid cash runway, its cash burn trajectory may have some shareholders thinking ahead to when the company may need to raise more cash. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future 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).

Since it has a market capitalisation of CA$87m, Stillwater Critical Minerals’ CA$8.4m in cash burn equates to about 9.6% 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.

So, Should We Worry About Stillwater Critical Minerals’ Cash Burn?

On this analysis of Stillwater Critical Minerals’ cash burn, we think its cash runway was reassuring, while its increasing cash burn has us a bit worried. Cash burning companies are always on the riskier side of things, but after considering all of the factors discussed in this short piece, we’re not too worried about its rate of cash burn. Taking a deeper dive, we’ve spotted 4 warning signs for Stillwater Critical Minerals you should be aware of, and 1 of them is a bit concerning.

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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.