We're Interested To See How Hawthorn Resources (ASX:HAW) Uses Its Cash Hoard To Grow

We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. For example, Hawthorn Resources (ASX:HAW) shareholders have done very well over the last year, with the share price soaring by 125%. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.

In light of its strong share price run, we think now is a good time to investigate how risky Hawthorn Resources' cash burn is. 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). We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.

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How Long Is Hawthorn Resources' Cash Runway?

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 June 2025, Hawthorn Resources had AU$13m in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was AU$373k. So it had a very long cash runway of many years from June 2025. Even though this is but one measure of the company's cash burn, the thought of such a long cash runway warms our bellies in a comforting way. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

View our latest analysis for Hawthorn Resources

How Is Hawthorn Resources' Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

In our view, Hawthorn Resources doesn't yet produce significant amounts of operating revenue, since it reported just AU$1.1m in the last twelve months. 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. The 60% reduction in its cash burn over the last twelve months may be good for protecting the balance sheet but it hardly points to imminent growth. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Hawthorn Resources due to its lack of significant operating revenues. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.

How Easily Can Hawthorn Resources Raise Cash?

While we're comforted by the recent reduction evident from our analysis of Hawthorn Resources' cash burn, it is still worth considering how easily the company could raise more funds, if it wanted to accelerate spending to drive growth. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. 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).

Hawthorn Resources has a market capitalisation of AU$30m and burnt through AU$373k last year, which is 1.2% of the company's market value. That means it could easily issue a few shares to fund more growth, and might well be in a position to borrow cheaply.

How Risky Is Hawthorn Resources' Cash Burn Situation?

As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Hawthorn Resources' cash burn. In particular, we think its cash runway stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. But it's fair to say that its cash burn reduction was also very reassuring. After considering a range of factors in this article, we're pretty relaxed about its cash burn, since the company seems to be in a good position to continue to fund its growth. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 3 warning signs for Hawthorn Resources you should be aware of, and 2 of them are 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.