1 million ounces, easy peasy, page-92

FMX, perhaps the average discovery cost will depend a lot on what you read.
This is a link to a very comprehensive world wide study on the subject carried out in 2011;

http://www.minexconsulting.com/publications/PAPER%20-%20Recent%20trends%20in%20gold%20discovery%20NewGenGold%20Conf%20Nov%202011%20FINAL.pdf

on Page 7;

“The unit discovery cost is currently running at $30 to $40 per ounce.”

That was in 2011 and is a world wide average, not Australian ave.

On page 12 there is a table showing discovery costs by region.
In Australia the average is $60 (green field and brown field) or ($41 for brown field).
$60 is triple the $20 rule of thumb that you posted.

You still need to take into account the type of deposit as well.
You can't compare discovery costs of a narrow vein system to that of a large porphyry system.

60% of deposits in the study were porphyry or sediment hosted. Only 25% were epithermal.
I think that would distort the figure much lower from what it would be for epithermal alone (maybe $80 or higher as a guess).
If there was a breakdown by type of deposit I think you would find it to be much higher again for narrow vein systems.

We may also get an upgrade to Buccaneer which would likely bring down the overall average discovery cost for $12 mill spent.
If Buccaneer has added 100,000oz as well (and 250,000 for OP), then the discovery cost on $12 mill would be $34 which is well below the $41 ave for Australia brown field quoting the number in the study I linked above.

As you said lets wait and see the upgrade before deciding if we got value for many or if we are above or below par on discovery costs.

If another study comes up with $20 compared to $60 in the 2011 study; which one do we believe and does it really matter as long as we add strong value for money spent?