B.C.'s top 100 companies: All that glitters is gold
Leading the pack as Business BC’s strongest company is Eldorado Gold, which moved up from 18th last year.
Paul Wright, president and CEO of Eldorado Gold which grabbed the No.1 spot in The Vancouver Sun's Business Top 100.
Photograph by: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
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All that glitters is, in fact, gold — and in some cases, copper, silver or even sand and gravel.
Because, once again, British Columbia’s top companies for the past year are overwhelmingly miners.
Leading the pack as Business BC’s strongest company is Eldorado Gold, which moved up from 18th last year. The gold miner — with two operating mines and five exploration projects around the world — also ranked third on Business BC’s list of fastest-growing companies.
Rounding out the five strongest were two more gold producers — Goldcorp Inc. at number two and Red Back Mining, taking fourth spot — and two copper companies, Corriente Resources in third, and Quadra Mining in fifth.
Throw in some sand and gravel — Polaris Minerals, Business BC’s fourth fastest-growing company — and the pattern is repeated in the fastest-growing list. New Gold Inc. takes top honours in this list, Fortuna Silver, which mines both gold and silver, is runner-up, with Eldorado Gold third, and First Majestic Silver Corp., fifth.
Gold often shines when the world looks gloomiest, and the world looked pretty gloomy in 2008 and 2009.
“It’s kind of a go-to investment when you’re concerned about inflation [and] when you’re concerned about the strength of the U.S. dollar, which gold is priced in,” said Robert Gallagher, CEO of New Gold.
In 2008, the price of gold averaged $872 US an ounce, up almost 25 per cent from $699 US an ounce in 2007, according to a weekly commodity price report put out by TD Economics last week. The price reached $1,000 US last month and has stayed there, or well above, since.
“Gold did not go through an economic crisis; gold benefited from it,” said Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of B.C.
“So if you were a gold company, you were doing okay — unless you were caught in the overall liquidity crisis,” he said.
But while more than 800 mining companies call B.C. home, most of them operate outside the country, Gratton pointed out. Like Eldorado Gold, which operates in Brazil, China, Turkey and Greece. New Gold, which has a mine it is developing near Kamloops, is almost an anomaly. But the company’s other projects are in Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Chile and California.
The trend speaks to an earlier era when much of B.C. was built around mining, Gratton said.
“And it’s always remained a place where the industry parks itself,” he said.
“So now we’ve got a lot of expertise. Some of the best legal minds in the world are here in Vancouver and some of the best financiers are here in Vancouver.”
That has made Vancouver a world centre for mine financing and exploration for years, Gratton said.
“This is where the brains are,” he said.
Miners are no strangers to Business BC’s list, often dominating. But in 2007, there were signs the economy was diversifying, with some alternative energy, technology and even health and nutrition companies making strong appearances and taking several top spots. But those companies were hurt in 2008, and some top performers in 2007 didn’t make the cut-off share price of $1 on May 31, 2009.
The drop in the price of oil may have played a role in keeping some technology companies off the list, said Helmut Pastrick, Central 1 Credit Union’s chief economist.
“To some extent [lower energy prices] have potentially taken some of the steam out of the short-term need for alternative energies,” Pastrick said.
But while the miners take the five top spots on the strongest list, eight of the province’s strongest 15 are not miners, including methanol-producer Methanex Corp., Westshore Terminal,s and Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers.
It’s still a far cry from when The Vancouver Sun published its first list of the province’s top companies in 2003. Then, only one miner — Northgate Exploration Ltd. — made it into the top 10 of what was then a single list of 100 companies. Non-miners Finning International, Great Canadian Gaming Corp., Imperial Parking, Ritchie Bros. and Intrawest took top honours.
fionaanderson@vancouversun.com
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Paul Wright, president and CEO of Eldorado Gold which grabbed the No.1 spot in The Vancouver Sun's Business Top 100.
Photograph by: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
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Lazarous
November 11, 2009 - 5:53 AM
Interesting that West Fraser is listed as one of the top 100 companies, and yet they are just going to shut down Eurocan throwing 2500 people out of work, and destroying a region!!!
Winnipeg Ted
November 10, 2009 - 9:17 PM
BC is lucky they have that what do we have in Winnipeg "Nada"!
Good place to be from!
?
November 10, 2009 - 5:23 PM
responding to ARGH, sorry ARGH I'm alot more sophisticated and educated than you and your simpleton assessment of corporate headquarters=corporate taxes. Unfortunately, in the real world, to operate in any jurisdiction, a properly registered entity must be incorporated in the jurisdiction of operations and that entity in some cases can actually be controlled by our local company, however in most cases- even here in Canada Provincially no such option exists- so a couple of local officials become the holding company directors, avoiding further digression- the foreign operating entity duly incorporated first pays all taxes in that jurisdiction then funnels any said profits to our local company who in turn pays a measly corporate tax rate- if any, since there are so many keen and clever accountants being brought into the country from China that in most cases no corporate tax is ever paid. Regardless, the jist of my argument was simply, miscontrued reporting of statistics open to interpretation. Your jaded presumptions failed to read the argument and you simply expressed your prejudicial opinion.
Dan
November 10, 2009 - 4:56 PM
With interest rates way to low of course a gold company is going to be up there. Inflation is running rampant right now with the low interest rates and the printing of $ throughout the world that's why gold is at record highs and will keep going up.
Dan
November 10, 2009 - 4:55 PM
With interest rates way to low of course a gold company is going to be up there. Inflation is running rampant right now with the low interest rates and the printing of $ throughout the world that's why gold is at record highs and will keep going up.
Vancouver Real Estate =DrugMoney
November 10, 2009 - 4:04 PM
All these companies have something in comomn all of these companies have something the same.
Start spreadin' the news, I'm leavin' today
I want to be a part of it, New York, New York
These vagabond shoes are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it, New York, New York
I wanna wake up in a city that doesn't sleep
And find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town blues are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it, in old New York
If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you , New York, New York
New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps
And find I'm A-number-one, top of the list,
King of the hill, A-number-one
These little town blues are melting away
I'm gonna make a brand new start of it in old New York
A-a-a-nd if I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York
New York
Gotta love Vancouver Shells, laundery service and that mountain air. Hell we even went bear hunting.
It is going to be real sad once we get rid of the salmon, dam they are a lot of fun to fish for and catch. But that is the price if you want to sell a river.
John
November 10, 2009 - 3:48 PM
I would like to see BC have more technology companies.
El
November 10, 2009 - 2:56 PM
I worked for a gold minie that closed in 2005, because gold was less than $300 an ounce and had been low for a long time. I wouldn't rush out to buy any.
robert
November 10, 2009 - 2:14 PM
good to see the lefties once again crying about companies making money. shame, shame, on them. look at your paycheck after expenses every month and tell me if a PROFIT is there. then again being lefties you give all your profits away.
Gweilojoe
November 10, 2009 - 1:07 PM
It is rather embarrassing that here we are in 2009 and our top companies are still in the resource sectors.
top 100 in what?
November 10, 2009 - 12:28 PM
i want to see the top 100 to work for - not the top 100 moneymakers.
who knows whether they just make a lot of money and then give a lot of bonuses and perks to the executives but treat all the workers like crap?
show the people what matters to the people.
or is the vancouver sun and canwest/global just an industry publication?
Lary Waldman
November 10, 2009 - 11:34 AM
I am very happy we have 100 top companies, but I would like to see them ranked by the number of employees they have , not how rich they make their owners.
Lary Waldman
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Gold is the only true form of wealth, which is why resource companies are doing well. I would not want to be holding worthless fiat currencies in the next few years, copper, gold silver etc , anything but fiat, they can not print fast enough right now to keep up with all the gov programs and spending, it won't last forever.