With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Greatland Gold plc's (LON:GGP) future prospects. Greatland Gold plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and development of precious and base metals in Australia. The UK￡496m market-cap company announced a latest loss of UK￡21m on 30 June 2023 for its most recent financial year result. As path to profitability is the topic on Greatland Gold's investors mind, we've decided to gauge market sentiment. We've put together a brief outline of industry analyst expectations for the company, its year of breakeven and its implied growth rate.

Check out our latest analysis for Greatland Gold

According to some industry analysts covering Greatland Gold, breakeven is near. They expect the company to post a final loss in 2024, before turning a profit of UK￡1.0m in 2025. The company is therefore projected to breakeven around 2 years from today. What rate will the company have to grow year-on-year in order to breakeven on this date? Using a line of best fit, we calculated an average annual growth rate of 103%, which is rather optimistic! Should the business grow at a slower rate, it will become profitable at a later date than expected.

Underlying developments driving Greatland Gold's growth isn’t the focus of this broad overview, though, 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. So, a high growth rate is not out of the ordinary, particularly when a company is in a period of investment.

Before we wrap up, there’s one issue worth mentioning. Greatland Gold currently has a relatively high level of debt. Typically, debt shouldn’t exceed 40% of your equity, which in Greatland Gold's case is 79%. A higher level of debt requires more stringent capital management which increases the risk around investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

There are too many aspects of Greatland Gold to cover in one brief article, but the key fundamentals for the company can all be found in one place – Greatland Gold's company page on Simply Wall St. We've also put together a list of key aspects you should look at:

1. Historical Track Record: What has Greatland Gold's performance been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of our analysis for more clarity.

2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on Greatland Gold'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.

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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.