The Sunstone Metals Ltd (ASX: STM) share price is soaring 25% into the green during afternoon trade today and is now changing hands at 4.9 cents apiece.
That caps off an impressive last week's worth of trading for the minerals exploration company. Its share price has soared 122% higher in that time.
Let's check what's been driving the relatively unknown ASX resource share's price action lately.
But first – a quick rundown on Sunstone Metals
Sunstone is in the business of minerals exploration and development, boasting gold and copper assets on its books, strategically located in Ecuador.
Specifically, these are the Bramaderos Gold-Copper Project and the El Palmar Copper-Gold Project. Sunstone owns a partial interest in the latter.
It has completed a number of milestones at these projects and looks to repeat previous successes from almost a decade ago when its share price was trading at a peak of $1.15 per share.
Since then, the Sunstone Metals share price has barely managed to crack 5 cents a share on average which leads us to today.
At the time of writing, Sunstone Metals has a market capitalisation of $106 million.
Why is the Sunstone Metals share price charging higher this past week?
Sunstone shares have been on the move since the company announced it had completed first assays at its El Palmar site last week.
Its announcement noted Sunstone intersected 480m of gold and copper in its first drill hole at the site. The drill included "high-grade gold sections that are characteristic of gold-rich porphyry systems".
Of the drill holes completed, assays from the remaining two holes are expected in around five to six weeks.
Sunstone is acquiring the remainder of El Palmar under stipulations made in the governing contract for the site. Under that agreement, the company has met all of its obligations to move to 51% ownership and commenced share transferral.
The company also noted it is fully funded for ongoing exploration at El Palmar with total liquidity of approximately $21 million.
Last week's announcement builds on a previous update the company made back in September.
In that update, the company gave details on drill results from its Bramaderos project.
The assay results indicated "the potential for Bramaderos to host a substantial gold-copper porphyry system". There are another six holes planned as part of the maiden resource program at this site.
Why are these advancements good news for Sunstone Metals shares?
The price of gold and copper has been volatile these past few months although each metal has been gaining since last month.
For instance, in that time, copper now trades 5% higher at US$4.29/lbs whereas gold has come up US$32/t.oz.
Given these near-term strengths, investors appear hungry for ASX metals shares with the S&P/ASX 300 Metals & Mining index (XMM) climbing almost 4% in the past week. That's well ahead of the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO)'s loss of 0.07%.
Similarly, the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Gold Index (XGD) has jumped 5.5% higher in the last week, further indicating the strengths in the broad sector.
Given the company's recent advancements, in addition to the rising price of gold and copper, it's clear what's likely been fuelling the Sunstone share price lately.
Sunstone Metals share price snapshot
The Sunstone Metals share price has delivered a 242% return this year to date, extending its gain in the last 12 months to 152%.
It's rallied 100% in the past week although, prior to its recent gains, was trading relatively flat.
Nonetheless, it is still ahead of the broad index's return of around 20% in the last year.
