Your mistake was sampling companies by marketcap. In the small cap world, that can vary radically at any given time. This is especially true for companies with few assets and a big promotion budget.
THE BETTER, MORE ACCURATE METRIC
You would have been better off comparing companies by exploration budget over the last 3 years. Exploration budget is probably the most reliable comparison of company activity and, therefore, personnel budgets.
Otherwise, to compare by market cap in the junior resource space is flawed at best.
George