SGoholic, There are several factors. It's not as expensive to...

SGoholic, There are several factors. It's not as expensive to operate in Canada as it is in Australia and Canadian Companies operate all over the world where mining costs can be much cheaper. Both are socialist countries but Canada has better infrastructure near major gold mining areas compared to Western Australia. The Canadian Government also has programs to help junior explorers raise funds. Canadians' can get a 50% tax reduction for investing in exploration expenditures of a company. As long as the expenditures are conducted within a given year. Many times you'll see a cash raises at prices 20 to 30% higher than current market share price. In other words, the Canadian gov't tries to help small exploration companies while the Australian Gov't just seems to want to raise it's NSR. Also, many of the Australian Companies have low grade like De Grey, i.e. 2 gpt. Hard to justify mining costs in Australia at 2 gpt. Of course the higher the price of gold goes, the easier it is to justify mining at 2 gpt.