The All Ordinaries (Index: ^AORD) (ASX: XAO) is up an impressive 12.5% in the past 12 months – not including dividends, but several stocks have produced much better returns.

Ignoring for a moment the meteoric rise of the pot stocks like Stemcell United (ASX: SCU) this week alone, the following five stocks have all produced stellar returns for their shareholders.

Here's a closer look at the 5 companies.

Source: Google Finance, S&P Global Markets Intelligence

Lithium is a hot commodity now and Kidman Resources holds the Mt Holland lithium and gold project in Western Australia. The company's Earl Grey lithium deposit could be as large as Australia's largest producing lithium mines – no wonder investors are excited.

BluGlass has released several positive news announcements regarding its technologies that are used in the production of LEDs, power electronics and concentrated solar cells. Analysts think the market opportunity for BluGrass is large and expect the company to start producing revenues from the 2018 financial year.

Greenland Minerals is building the world's fifth largest uranium mine as well as the world's second-biggest rare earths operation in Kvanefjeld, Greenland. Market interest is obviously rising for both commodities as the world turns away from fossil fuels.

Clean TeQ is developing the Syerston nickel/cobalt/scandium project in NSW. In February, the company's shares began trading on the OTCQX market in the US, and later that month announced a strategic partnership with China's Pengxin Mining to fast track development of the project.

And finally, Mod Resources has discovered a significant new copper project in Botswana with current value estimated at between US$180 and US$297 million. New copper and silver mineralisation have also since been discovered, adding to the good news.

Foolish takeaway

Despite the share price rises, not one of the companies above have any profits or earnings to share with investors yet. That means the risks of the share prices crashing are high and investors might want to look elsewhere for better opportunities.

The post Why these 5 stocks have jumped more than 360% in the past year appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.