Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX: AIS) shares are falling today despite seemingly positive news regarding the Canbelego Copper project being released by the company's joint venture partner. At the time of writing, the Aeris Resources share price is trading at 19.5 cents – 2.5% lower than it was at yesterday's close.

However, in earlier trade, Aeris shares jumped 5% to an intraday high of 21 cents each before retreating to their current level.

According to Helix Resources Ltd (ASX: HLX) – which holds 70% of the project – assay results have found thick zones of high-grade copper at the Canbelego project.

The Canbelego project is located around 45 kilometres south-east of Cobar, New South Wales.

Let's take a closer look at the news from Aeris Resources.

Assay results

Currently, the Canbelego project is undergoing a drilling program to update its resource estimate.

Today, Aeris Resources and Helix Resources announced they've received assay results from drill holes including:

• CANDD001 – which intercepted 2 metres at 3.07% copper within a broader interval of 11 metres at 1.10% copper from 270 metres downhole.

• CANDD002 – which intercepted 14 metres at 4.22% copper from 253 metres downhole, including 3 metres at 7.01% copper from 352 metres; and 4 metres at 5.94% copper from 358 metres.

A final drill hole is in progress. The companies are hoping to find further copper near CANDD002.

Aeris Resources and Helix are also testing the assays from the above drill holes for gold. However, they only expect small amounts to be found.

Another drill hole – CANDD004 – found a large amount of chalcopyrite, a copper iron sulphide that is often used as an ore of copper. The drill hole provided assay results including:

• 8 metres with 1% disseminated chalcopyrite logged from 252 metres and 4.8 metres with a variable abundance of chalcopyrite logged from 273 metres.

Helix managing director Mike Rosenstreich said the drilling program has significantly increased the high-grade potential of the Canbelego copper project.

The joint venture partners plan to continue drilling after they receive results from ongoing drill hole electromagnetic surveys.

However, the drilling program has recently been slowed by wet weather.

Aeris Resources share price snapshot

The Aeris Resources share price has been having a party on the ASX lately, despite today's lacklustre performance.

Currently, Aeris shares are up by around 95% year to date. They have also gained almost 520% since this time last year.

The company has a market capitalisation of around $436 million, with approximately 2 billion shares outstanding.

The post Aeris (ASX:AIS) share price slides despite project update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The Helix Resources Ltd (ASX: HLX) share price is one of the best performers on the ASX today. This follows the mineral exploration company's update on its recent capital raising efforts.

At the time of writing, Helix shares are swapping hands for 4.4 cents, up 41.94%. It's also worth noting that the company's share price hit a multi-year high of 4.5 in early afternoon trade.

What did Helix announce?

Investors are fighting to get a hold of Helix shares after the company provided an update on its placement.

According to its release, Helix advised it has received binding commitments to raise $4.03 million by way of placement. Furthermore, approximately 149.4 million new ordinary shares will be issued at 2.7 cents each to participating institutional and sophisticated investors. This represents a discount of 13% on the last closing price of 3.1 cents per share.

The company will use its existing placement capacity to create new shares. Under listing rule 7.1, this allows up to 15% of its shares to be issued without shareholder approval.

Therefore, funds raised from the placement will be allocated towards the company's aggressive drilling program at the Canbelego and CZ projects. High-grade copper mineralisation is also being targeted on its Cobar tenements in central New South Wales.

Settlement of the shares is expected to occur on 26 May 2021, with allotment the same day.

The lead manager of the placement, JP Equity Partners, will retain a 6% fee. In addition, the issue of 10 million options at a price of 5.4 cents with a 3-year expiry is also on offer.

Helix managing director, Mike Rosenstreich commented:

Our team is very excited to be able to lock-in an increased level of drilling. We now plan to have a drill rig on site virtually for the remainder of the year testing extensions to the known high-grade copper mineralisation as well as regional scale drilling to advance some of the targets reinforced by the recent airborne geophysical survey. The next six months will not be dull!

Helix share price review

Over the past 12 months, Helix shares have stormed close to 650% higher, reflecting positive investor sentiment. Year-to-date performance has also increased to post a gain of 340%.

Based on valuation grounds, Helix commands a market capitalisation of roughly $48 million, with over 1 billion shares on issue.

The post Helix (ASX:HLX) share price explodes 41%. Here's why appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The Helix Resources Ltd (ASX: HLX) share price is surging today after announcing a "massive" copper find at one of its mining operations.

At the time of writing, shares in the mineral exploration company are up 128.5%, trading at 3.2 cents.

Let's take a closer look at today's announcement and what it means for the Helix share price.

What's up with the Helix share price?

In a statement to the ASX, Helix advised it has intersected an "intense copper sulphide mineralisation" approximately 80m down from a previous copper find at its Canbelego mine in New South Wales. A second hole found more copper sulphide deposits 90m down from another find in the mine.

The Canbelego mine is a joint venture between Helix and Aeris Resources Limited (ASX: AIS). Helix controls 70% of the project.

As a result of these latest finds, Helix says it will reassess the mineralisation prospects at the mine for a larger estimate in its next resources update. The previous estimate was for 1.2% copper.

The expectations for greater copper deposits are seeing investors rally around the Helix share price this morning.

Management commentary

Helix managing director Mike Rosenstreich said

This is an exciting hit – notably there is more massive copper mineralisation in this drill hole which is very encouraging for a high-grade copper zone when the assays come in. As a bonus, there is the possibility of a second copper position emerging after we intersected chalcopyrite veins much higher in this hole.

Canbelego is one of Helix's two advanced copper projects and a key objective of this drilling program and the EM surveys is to demonstrate the growth potential of the defined mineralisation at each of them. Clearly, these two recent drill holes at Canbelego have extended the copper mineralisation nearly 100 metres below the previous base of the mineralisation envelope, which I am sure will be confirmed by the assays expected in June.

Copper commodity price

Copper is currently trading for US$4.79 per pound on the commodities market. It is down from its record high of US $4.90 a pound from earlier this week. Despite this, the metal is still 18.4% higher than last month and an amazing 36.2% greater compared to the beginning of this year. In comparison, gold is up just 5.0% this month but down 3.5% in 2021.

The website Trading Economics says the price of copper is increasing due to increasing demand and decreasing supply. Demand is booming because of the rebounding global and economy and surging demand for green technology. Copper is an essential element in renewable technology production.

Trading Economics attributed the supply drop to "a lack of investment by large miners" and recent tax hikes on copper production in Chile. The South American nation is the largest copper producer in the world.

Helix share price snapshot

Over the past 12-months, the Helix share price has increased 254.5%. Its current price is a 52-week high for the company. The last time the Helix share price was at this level was in September 2018.

Helix has a market capitalisation of $49 million.

The post Why the Helix (ASX:HLX) share price is rocketing 129% appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.