Very high.

In afternoon trade on Wednesday, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is up a slender 0.07%. As for the resource space, the S&P/ASX 200 Resource Index (ASX: XJR) is down 0.26%.

But these three ASX resources stocks are up 19%, 16%, and 45% respectively.

Here's what spurring investor interest today.

Three ASX resources stocks rocketing higher

Up first we have American West Metals Ltd (ASX: AW1). Shares in the ASX miner are up 18.64% at the time of writing, trading at 35 cents apiece.

There's no fresh price-sensitive news out from American West Metals today.

But outsized share price moves have been the norm for this ASX resources stock over the past few weeks amid a series of promising copper discovery announcements.

On Friday, shares closed the day up 26% and then gained another 17% on Monday. Yesterday, there looks to have been some profit taking, with the American West Metals share price tumbling 13%.

As for today, it looks like that profit-taking has turned to bargain-hunting for this copper explorer.

Up next, we have ASX resources stock Belararox Ltd (ASX: BRX). The Belararox share price is up 16% in afternoon trade at 36 cents a share.

The last price-sensitive news from Belararox was its June quarterly report, released on 28 July. And unlike American West, share price moves of this size are infrequent for this stock.

I'll be keeping an eye out for positive announcements from this junior explorer over the coming days.

Which brings us to the third ASX resources stock that's shooting higher today, Iris Metals Ltd (ASX: IR1).

The Iris Metals share price is up a whopping 44.5% at the time of writing, trading for $2.23 a share.

Investors are sending the Iris Metals share price through the roof after the company announced promising drilling results at its Beecher project in the United States.

The explorer said its drilling campaign had struck multiple wide, high-grade and shallow lithium intersections at the project. And Iris is bringing on more diamond drill rigs to expedite the exploration at Beecher.

Commenting on the results that are sending this ASX resources stock soaring today, Iris Metals' technical director Chris Connell said:

As Iris is the only ASX listed company with granted hard rock lithium pegmatite mining licences in the US, we currently are aggressively ramping-up drill testing of the Beecher project.

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In early trade, the North America-focused clean energy mining company's shares were up as much as 55% to 31 cents.

The ASX mining share has pulled back a touch since then but remains up 35% to 27 cents currently.

Why is this ASX mining share racing higher?

Investors have been bidding this ASX mining share higher today in response to the release of a promising update on drilling at the Storm Copper Project in Canada.

According to the release, diamond drilling of a large gravity target has intersected thick intervals of copper sulphides.

Management notes that the discovery of drill holes show similarities to many of the world's major sediment-hosted copper systems. This includes the deposits of the Kalahari Copper Belt and Central African Copper Belt.

Positively, the two diamond drill holes are located 680m apart, which suggests that the drilling has potentially identified a very large copper deposit.

The diamond drilling will now continue on high-priority copper targets with first assays expected in the next four weeks.

'Spectacular results'

The ASX mining share's managing director, Dave O'Neill, was excited by the results. He said:

We are very excited to announce that the diamond drilling has had immediate success and produced spectacular results confirming the presence of a major copper system within the Storm Project. These outstanding results are the product of systematic and persistent exploration, and further highlight the quality and huge exploration potential of the landholding.

The drill holes were targeting the first of a series of extensive gravity anomalies that were defined earlier this year, and have intersected a thick, sulphide and organic- rich unit. We believe this to be the source of the gravity anomalism, and given the large spacing between drill holes and size of the modelled gravity anomalies, the potential volume of mineralisation is very significant. This is a major copper discovery.

The post Guess which ASX mining share just rocketed 40% on a 'major copper discovery' appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) is down 4.16% Meanwhile, the related S&P/ASX 300 Metals and Mining Index (ASX: XMM) is down more by 4.51%.

Zooming out further, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is also down by 1.68%.

Let's cover which ASX mining shares are charting their own destiny on Thursday.

Desert Metals Ltd (ASX: DM1)

The Desert Metals share price is up 14.86% at the time of writing. Shares of the mineral explorer are currently trading for 42.5 cents each, having earlier hit an intraday high of 48 cents apiece — a gain of nearly 30% on Wednesday's close.

There's no news today from Desert Metals to make sense of the surge in green for its share price. However, on Tuesday the company reported that a possibility of a new rare earth system is emerging at its Innouendy site in Western Australia, giving promise to additional production yields. Shares rallied to 46 cents yesterday amid the announcement.

American West Metals Ltd (ASX: AW1)

The American West Metals share price is currently up a staggering 81.48% today. Shares of the progressive miner are trading hands for 24.5 cents each. They previously closed at 20 cents each.

American West Metals announced its first assay, or analysis results of its diamond drilling initiative for its Storm Copper Project in Canada. The drilling reportedly uncovered high grades and thicknesses of copper.

As part of the release, American West Metals managing director Dave O'Neill commented:

These results immediately validate the historical high-grade intersections within the 2750N Zone, highlighting the quality of the Storm mineral system. These kinds of grades and thicknesses are exactly what we want to see as we work to define a shallow high-grade copper resource.

Parabellum Resources Ltd (ASX: PBL)

The Parabellum Resources share price is another big gainer this afternoon, up 16.12% to 36 cents.

There's been no news today from Parabellum. However, earlier in the week, the company announced that it had started environmental baseline monitoring studies at the Khotgor project in Mongolia. The wider view is that these studies will introduce disclosures for its progress in implementing environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies.

Parabellum Resources non-executive chairman Mark Hohnen said:

We greatly value ESG considerations as they enable us to better identify material risks and growth potential, leading to better-informed decisions and business outcomes.

The post 3 ASX mining shares rocketing by more than 14% on Thursday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The American West Metals Ltd (ASX: AW1) share price is soaring 74% today to 23.5 cents.

Let's take a look at what this mineral explorer reported to the market today.

What did this ASX mining share discover?

Investors are buying up American West shares after drill results showed "spectacular" copper grades with "significant thickness".

The company reported its first assay results from diamond drilling at the company's Storm Copper Project. This is located on Somerset Island in Nunavut, Canada.

Results from drill hole ST22-05 include:

• 41m at 4.18% copper from 38 metres
• 15m at 10.05% copper from 47 meters
• 5m at 24.28% copper from 48 metres

The company said all drill holes at what is known as the 2750N zone have intersected with thick zones of breccia, and, or, massive copper sulphides.

American West is planning further diamond drilling and will provide additional assay results in future days and weeks.

Drilling will focus on expanding the 2750 zone and defining the resource at zones 4100N and 2200. Commenting on the news, managing director Dave O'Neill said:

These results immediately validate the historical high-grade intersections within the 2750N Zone, and highlight the quality of the Storm mineral system.

These kind of grades and thicknesses are exactly what we want to see as we work to define a shallow high-grade copper resource.

The 2750N Zone is currently over 200m long and still open along strike and at depth, with excellent potential for further drilling to significantly expand the high-grade mineralisation

American West share price recap

This ASX mining share has soared 80% in the year to date. In the past month, the American West share price has rocketed 57%.

For perspective, the ASX 200 Materials Index has slid nearly 7% in the past year.

American West has a market capitalisation of about $26 million based on the current share price.

The post Guess which ASX mining share is exploding 74% on a new copper find appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The American West Metals Ltd (ASX: AW1) and Magmatic Resources Ltd (ASX: MAG) share prices both soared today.

Let's take a look at why these ASX mining shares had such a good day.

Magmatic Resources

The Magmatic Resources share price exploded 108% today. Magmatic shares soared on drilling results.

The company reported visible copper sulphide mineralisation intersected a more than 740 metre interval.

Magmatic is exploring its wholly owned Myall project, 25 kilometres southwest of Narromine in New South Wales.

Commenting on the results, managing director Dr Adam McKinnon said:

This is an absolutely stunning result for the first full hole of our drilling program at Myall. It's difficult to describe the excitement of our team each time we look over the previous day's core and see an ever-increasing interval of visible sulphide mineralisation.

American West Metals

American West shares soared 16% today amid a "major copper discovery" in Canada.

Drill hole ST22-10 intersected with more than 68 metres of stratiform copper sulphide mineralisation. This was from a 277 metre downhole.

Managing director Dave O'Neill described the discovery, at the company's Storm Copper Project, as "game changing".

The importance of this discovery for the project cannot be overstated, as it has hugely positive implications for the copper endowment within the project area.

The post 2 ASX mining shares that rocketed between 16% and 108% on Tuesday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The outperformer is the American West Metals Ltd (ASX: AW1) share price. It jumped 48% to a high of 18.5 cents this morning, its highest since May, before retreating to trade at 15.5 cents at the time of writing. That's still a 24% gain on yesterday's closing price.

In contrast, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is 0.52% lower as the August reporting season rolls on.

The small ASX mining share in the spotlight

American West is stealing some of the spotlight today after it announced a major copper discovery at its Storm Project in Canada.

Its drill hole (ST22-10) intersected over 68 metres of stratiform copper sulphide mineralisation from a 277-metre downhole.

This is significant, according to the small cap ASX mining share. It noted that the discovery is associated with an 800m by 300m electromagnetic (EM) plate, with six other similar large EM plates yet to be tested.

Details of the drilling result from this ASX mining share

The mineralisation is interpreted to be stratiform and is hosted within a vuggy, bituminous, and fossiliferous carbonate unit.

This is consistent with the typical mineralisation model for sedimentary copper systems. This style of permeable host rocks could form chemical traps for the deposition of copper-rich fluids.

The ASX mineral explorer was quick to point out that many other large copper systems have similar geology.

What American West is saying

The managing director of American West Dave O'Neill said:

This is a game changing discovery at the Storm Copper Project. Exploration drilling has intersected stratiform copper sulphide mineralisation at depth which supports our geological assumptions that there is a major copper system lying below the high-grade near surface mineralisation.

The new copper mineralisation is associated with a large EM plate that is one of six untested plates, most of which are located in highly prospective positions – below or adjacent to the known high-grade copper prospects and fault system

The American West share price snapshot

The surge in the American West share price today pushes the ASX mining share to a gain of more than 10% for the year.

That's well above the All Ordinaries, which has shed around 7% over the same period, and the S&P/ASX 300 Metal & Mining index, which inched up 2.1%.

Other ASX copper miners have turned in mixed performances. The Sandfire Resources Ltd (ASX: SFR) share price has fallen 15%, while the OZ Minerals Limited (ASX: OZL) share price is up 21% in the past 12 months.

American West is a junior explorer with projects in Canada and in Utah, USA.

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After surging to a high of 27 cents in early trading today, the company's share price has retreated to 19 cents at the time of writing, up 22%. In comparison, the  S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is climbing 0.34% today.

Let's take a look at what could be impacting the American West share price today.

Zinc and copper intersected

Investors are buying up ASX mining share American West after the company reported its "best assay results to date".

The mineral explorer reported high grade zinc, copper, silver and indium results at the fourth drill hole at West Desert. This project is located 160km southwest of Salt Lake City, in the US state of Utah.

Assay results showed more than 105m of zinc and copper was intersected at drill site WD22-03 within four major intervals.

This included:

• 10.82 metres (m) at 1.41% copper, 1.51% zinc, 0.23 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 59.41g/t silver and 40.63 g/t indium from 224.63m
• 47.4m at 4.3% zinc, 0.08% copper, 0.04 g/t gold, 12 g/t silver and 34.75 g/t indium from 234.07m
• 26.52m at 8.46% zinc, 0.17% copper, 0.11g/t gold, 10.61 g/t silver and 55.63g/t indium from 313.47m
• 18.59m at 13.24% zinc, 140.96g/t indium from 367.88m.

The results will help the company provide a maiden 2012 JORC resource estimate for the West Desert project.

American West plans to report further results from more drill holes in future weeks.

What did management say?

Commenting on the news, managing director Dave O'Neill said:

We are thrilled to share the diamond drill results from WD22-03, as the program continues to define high-grade mineralisation at West Desert, substantially enhancing the resource potential.

The intersections within WD22-03 display outstanding thicknesses and grade which continue to highlight the significant scale and quality of the West Desert Deposit.

The assay results and drill hole location are strategically favourable and provide further support for potential future underground development.

Share price snapshot

The American West share price has soared 31% in the past 12 months, and has rocketed 52% in the year to date.

For perspective, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has shed around 2% in a year.

American West has a market capitalisation of almost $15 million based on its current share price.

The post 'We are thrilled': Why this ASX mining share is flying 22% higher today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.