Official registries and open data list 103 active companies in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction in British Columbia, which puts British Columbia in 4th place in Canada for this sector (5 % of the national total). 1 of them (<1 %) have at least one known director, and 3 (3 %) published an official change in the last 18 months: incorporation, amendment, change of director or address.
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Get 5 profiles from this segmentMining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction counts 17,325 establishments and about 218,000 payroll employees in Canada, but its real measure is capital: $65.3 billion of investment planned for 2026. The sector is concentrated in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, dominated by a handful of very large operators surrounded by a long chain of service suppliers.
NAICS 21 brings together three worlds: oil and gas extraction, mining and quarrying, and support activities (drilling, well services, contract mining). ISED counts 17,325 establishments in 2025, of which only 6,964 have employees: the rest are royalty companies, exploration juniors and self-employed operators.
Average size is misleading. Among employers, 56.2% have fewer than five employees, but 1.4%, roughly a hundred establishments with 500 employees or more, carry most of the production. Statistics Canada measures 218,386 payroll employees in 2025, including 101,481 in Alberta, 28,199 in Ontario, 28,128 in British Columbia, 22,016 in Quebec and 20,166 in Saskatchewan.
The geography is clear-cut: Alberta holds 3,637 of the 6,964 employers, ahead of British Columbia (952), Saskatchewan (805), Ontario (743) and Quebec (446). According to ISED, sector GDP reached $66.9 billion in Alberta in 2024 and sector exports $217.0 billion, making it the country's largest industrial exporter.
Oil and gas keep setting records. The Canada Energy Regulator puts crude oil and equivalents production at 5.35 million barrels per day on average in 2025, up from 5.14 million in 2024; Alberta supplies 83.8% of the total. Gas production reached 19.0 billion cubic feet per day (+3.8%), driven by the Montney and by the start of LNG Canada exports from Kitimat in June 2025. The expanded Trans Mountain system, in service since May 2024, freed up the egress capacity that had been missing.
On the mining side, gold leads. Natural Resources Canada puts mineral production at $64.3 billion in 2024, with gold accounting for 26% of the total, and exploration at $4.1 billion, of which 44% went to precious metals. Statistics Canada expects a 20% rise in gold mining investment in 2026. Copper, nickel and iron ore have been declining for a decade, while potash, graphite and lithium are rising.
Capital is returning after a pause. Capital expenditures fell 3.1% in 2025 (completion of large projects, consolidation) before rebounding toward $65.3 billion in 2026 (+6.8%), including +7.3% in mining and quarrying. Alberta payroll employment, however, remains roughly 10,000 people below its 2024 level: automation is absorbing volume growth.
Resource ownership is provincial: the Alberta Energy Regulator, the BC Energy Regulator, Saskatchewan's Ministry of Energy and Resources and Quebec's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests issue leases, drilling permits and authorization certificates. Federally, the Canada Energy Regulator oversees interprovincial pipelines and the Impact Assessment Agency reviews major projects.
Since 2025, faster approvals have been the watchword. The One Canadian Economy Act created a Major Projects Office that is supporting about twenty projects, including the Crawford (Ontario), Matawinie (Quebec), Red Chris (British Columbia) and McIlvenna Bay (Saskatchewan) mines, as well as LNG Canada Phase 2. Federal Budget 2025 added a $2 billion Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund, a $371.8 million First and Last Mile Fund and an expansion of the critical mineral exploration tax credit to twelve additional minerals.
Associations connect the sector to governments and communities: the Mining Association of Canada, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Association minière du Québec and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. Impact and benefit agreements with Indigenous communities are unavoidable: Indigenous workers account for 11% of the mining workforce according to Natural Resources Canada.
Who buys what: operators buy drilling and completion services, heavy equipment and parts, explosives, camp logistics, specialized transport, engineering, environmental services, security and industrial IT. Exploration juniors instead buy geophysics, diamond drilling, laboratory services, regulatory advice and financing. Two markets, two very different sales cycles.
Cycles and signals to watch: capital spending announced quarterly by the large operators, investment intentions published by Statistics Canada in February, provincial drilling permits, claim registrations and additions to the Major Projects Office portfolio. A project that obtains its authorization certificate opens an eighteen to thirty-six month buying window for construction, then a recurring maintenance flow.
How ciblr helps: isolate the 6,964 employers by province and sub-sector, separate the roughly 2,700 establishments with five employees or more from the thousands of exploration shells, track public contracts and environmental notices that reveal a project starting up, and spot hiring of supervisors, geologists or operators as an early signal of a commissioning.
952 employers and 28,128 employees. The province produced 39% of Canadian gas in 2025 (+4.8%) and hosts LNG Canada, exporting since June 2025, as well as the Red Chris mine expansion. Authorizations run through the BC Energy Regulator and the Environmental Assessment Office.
Of these 103 companies, 1 are federally incorporated, 99 are known through the provincial registry, 4 only through open data (licences, public contracts, grants, registered employers). 4 of them were founded in 2025 and 2026, that is 4 % of the active base; 1 incorporations in 2025. That is below the average of the three previous years (6 a year): the pace of creation is slowing.
3 received a federal grant or contribution (3 agreements).
Headcount is known for 88 companies (85 %): 183 declared jobs in total, and the median company has 1-4 employees.
7 companies (7 %) publish a general phone or email, 20 hold an official licence or permit.
103 companies in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction are active in British Columbia according to official registries and open data, that is 5 % of the 1,930 companies in the sector across Canada.
1 of these companies (<1 %) have at least one director on the federal registry (the only registry that publishes directors), which lets you approach them through the right person.
ciblr sends 5 company profiles from this target free of charge, directors and contact details included. The subscription at 99 CAD per month gives access to the whole target, with Excel export and change tracking.
Every company counted here is active in an official registry (Corporations Canada, Registraire des entreprises du Québec, OrgBook BC) or named by an official open source (licence, public contract, grant, registered employer). The sector is a NAICS code, size comes from the declared headcount when a source provides it and otherwise from an estimate based on the registry (board size, age, status, statute), and "recent signal" means a published move (incorporation, amendment, change of director, address, contract, grant, hiring) in the last 18 months. Figures are recomputed every week from the ciblr database. No data is purchased or invented.
ciblr sends you 5 profiles of companies in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction in British Columbia free of charge, directors and contact details included. For the whole target, the subscription is 99 CAD per month, no commitment.