Artemis Resources found some market support after it reported three new gold discoveries in the west Pilbara.
The compilation of geochemical data identified three new discoveries within 30km of the company's Radio Hill plant, which is currently being refurbished.
At Patterson's Hut, rock ship samples in veins and gossanous chert returned grades of up to 11.4 grams per tonne gold across a 4.5km-long surface soil anomaly.
The company received rock chips grading up to 5.04gpt gold along the 14km-long surface anomaly at Ruth Well North.
At Pipeline, nuggets were found in shear zones across two 1km-long trends.
The work also extended existing gold targets Silica Hill and Nickol River.
Artemis executive director Ed Mead said Karratha remained unexplored for gold.
"This area wide geochemical and rock chip survey indicates substantial gold prospectivity exists within Artemis' extensive tenement package, all within a short trucking distance of our Radio Hill processing plant," he said.
"The use of ionic geochemical analysis techniques in conjunction with traditional geochemical sampling has helped Artemis identify numerous new targets and projects such as Carlow Castle and Purdy's Reward."
Meanwhile, drilling at De Grey Mining's Pilbara project, 60km south of Port Hedland, continued to firm up underground potential.
Drilling beneath the Withnell deposit returned 4.65m at 7.1gpt gold from 164.2m, including 2.9m at 10.39gpt; 4.1m at 10.23gpt gold from 125.5m, including 0.35m at 27.7gpt and 0.5m at 51.2gpt; and 11.1m at 3.16gpt gold from 190m, including 4.1m at 5.13gpt.
"Grade is king - and the Withnell underground lodes immediately beneath the proposed open pit are an important component of our near-term resource growth strategy," De Grey technical director Andy Beckwith said.
"The scale of target and the significantly higher grade mineralisation has the potential to drive a significant step change in the overall mining economics."
De Grey has an exploration target for the Withnell underground of 2.6-3.5 million tonnes at 4-6.5gpt gold for 330,000-720,000 ounces of gold.
Further drilling will begin this month.
Artemis shares rose by 10.7% to A15.5c after jumping by as much as 15%, while De Grey was up 3.7% to 14c after earlier being up 7%.
