http://www.kitco.com/ind/GoldReport/2013-11-28-On-the-Trail-of-Juniors-with-Blue-Sky-Potential-Eric-Coffin.html "Grade is king, but margin is the key. Majors are focused on margin per ounce produced. You can get high margins with a lower-grade deposit if everything goes right but, by and large, the higher grade the better the margin should be. It comes down to net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR). Companies now want gold projects that can be built for $100–150 million ($100–150M) with NPVs of $300M or $400M and all-in cash costs of $600-800/oz—assuming they're big enough. They don't want to go too small because they can spread themselves only so thin. I don't see majors picking up 50,000-ounce-per-year (50 Koz/year) deposits, but we might see them picking up 100–150 Koz/year projects, when a few years ago few majors would look at a deposit unless it was capable of generating 250 Koz/year or more."...................................................................................................... In Sonora, Mexico, half a dozen mines that began production in the last five years don't have grade. They're 0.8, 0.7 or 0.6 grams per ton (0.6 g/t), but they have fantastic combinations of logistics, costs, workforces, metallurgy and geometry, and they produce at $500–700/oz cash costs."