Core Lithium Ltd (ASX:CXO) is possibly approaching a major achievement in its business, so we would like to shine some light on the company. Core Lithium Ltd engages in the development of lithium and various metal deposits in Northern Territory and South Australia. The company’s loss has recently broadened since it announced a AU$7.5m loss in the full financial year, compared to the latest trailing-twelve-month loss of AU$13m, moving it further away from breakeven. The most pressing concern for investors is Core Lithium's path to profitability – when will it breakeven? Below we will provide a high-level summary of the industry analysts’ expectations for the company.

Check out our latest analysis for Core Lithium

According to the 9 industry analysts covering Core Lithium, the consensus is that breakeven is near. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2023, before generating positive profits of AU$259m in 2024. Therefore, the company is expected to breakeven just over a year from now. How fast will the company have to grow each year in order to reach the breakeven point by 2024? Working backwards from analyst estimates, it turns out that they expect the company to grow 42% year-on-year, on average, which is extremely buoyant. If this rate turns out to be too aggressive, the company may become profitable much later than analysts predict.

Underlying developments driving Core Lithium's growth isn’t the focus of this broad overview, however, keep in mind that by and large a metal and mining business has lumpy cash flows which are contingent on the natural resource mined and stage at which the company is operating. This means, large upcoming growth rates are not abnormal as the company is beginning to reap the benefits of earlier investments.

Before we wrap up, there’s one aspect worth mentioning. Core Lithium currently has no debt on its balance sheet, which is rare for a loss-making metals and mining company, which usually has a high level of debt relative to its equity. This means that the company has been operating purely on its equity investment and has no debt burden. This aspect reduces the risk around investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

This article is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis on Core Lithium, so if you are interested in understanding the company at a deeper level, take a look at Core Lithium's company page on Simply Wall St. We've also compiled a list of key aspects you should further examine:

1. Valuation: What is Core Lithium worth today? Has the future growth potential already been factored into the price? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether Core Lithium is currently mispriced by the market.

2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on Core Lithium’s board and the CEO’s background.

3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.