The average size of the financings on the TSX Venture Exchange jumped 139% in the first six months of 2004 over the same period last year, with the mining sector leading the way, the junior exchange said Monday.

The TSXV said in a release that average financing as of June 30 was $1.96 million vs $820,000 at the same point in 2003.

As of June 30, 1,178 deals on TSXV raised a total of $2.3 billion, up almost 192% vs last year’s numbers of $790.1 million through 958 financing deals.

The mining sector raised a total of $1.4 billion in financings, accounting for 59% of the total), with the oil and gas sector second with $451.3 million (20% of the total) and technology third with $163.2 million raised (7% of the total).

The largest single financing was by South Atlantic Ventures Ltd., a Vancouver-based mining company, which raised $160 million through a public offering deal last month. EuroZinc Mining Corp., also of Vancouver, completed the next largest single financing year-to-date, raising $78.5 million through a private placement deal in April 2004.

The market capitalization for TSXV equities was $20.69 billion as of June 30, 2004, down 1.4% from May 2004, but up 74.5% from the same period last year.

The TSXV said nine companies jumped to the senior Toronto Stock Exchange in June 2004, bringing the total number of YTD graduates to 30.