B.C. firms occupied a third of this year's list of the TSX Venture 50 produced by the TMX Group, operator of the TSX and TSX Venture exchanges.
The list includes the top 10 companies in five major category sectors: mining, oil and gas, technology/life sciences, cleantech and diversified industries.
B.C. firms dominated the mining company category holding six of 10 positions in the category. They included Fancamp Exploration Ltd. (3rd); TTM Resources Inc. (4th), Zeox Corp. (5th), Canplats Resources Corp. (7th), North American Tungsten Corp. (8th) and Rockwell Diamonds Inc. (10th).
B.C. companies also took top spots in the cleantech category with Zongshen PEM Power Systems Inc. taking top spot. Other companies included: Naikun Wind Energy Group Inc. (3rd), Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (6th), and Sierra Geothermal Power Corp. (8th).
In the diversified industries category, Energold Drilling Corp. took second spot with Cabo Drilling Corp. taking fifth place and CIBT Education Group Inc. ranking sixth.
Peer 1 Network Enterprises ranked fourth and VendTeck Systems ranked fifth in the technology/life sciences category.
Opal Energy Corp. ranked fifth and Ryland Oil Corp. ranked seventh in the oil and gas category.
The annual list is based on a ranking formula that gives equal weighting to a company's annual revenue, return on investment, market capitalization growth and trading volume.