Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc All information is at 31 December 2013 and unaudited. Performance at month end with net income reinvested One Three One Three Five Month Months Year Years Years Net asset value 1.4% -3.2% -24.7% -44.3% 63.3% Share price 3.0% -3.8% -17.5% -37.9% 104.7% Euromoney Global Mining Index*^ 0.3% -2.8% -24.1% -45.9% 34.4% *Total return ^From 1 October 2013 the HSBC Global Mining Index was renamed Euromoney Global Mining Index Sources: BlackRock, Euromoney Global Mining Index, Datastream At month end Net asset value Including Income Capital Only Undiluted/diluted: 499.72p* 483.89p *Includes net revenue of 15.83p Share price: 465.00p Discount to NAV**: 6.9% Total assets: £987.86m Net yield***: 4.5% Gearing: 11.5% Ordinary shares in issue: 177,287,242 Ordinary shares held in Treasury: 15,724,600 ** Discount to NAV including Income. *** Based on prior year final dividend of 14.00p and current year interim dividend of 7.00p per share. Sector % Total Country Analysis % Total Assets Assets Diversified 43.1 Global 48.7 Base Metals 23.3 Other Africa 22.3 Industrial Minerals 16.4 Latin America 12.8 Gold 7.6 South Africa 4.1 Silver & Diamonds 6.4 Democratic Republic of Congo 3.6 Other 1.4 Australasia 3.4 Platinum 1.4 Canada 2.5 Energy Minerals 0.4 Emerging Europe 1.4 USA 0.8 ----- Indonesia 0.2 100.0 People's Republic of China 0.2 ===== ----- 100.0 ===== Ten Largest Investments % Total Assets Company Rio Tinto 11.8 BHP Billiton 10.6 Glencore Xstrata 9.9 First Quantum Minerals 7.8 London Mining Marampa Contract 6.7 Freeport McMoRan 6.5 Vale 4.1 Cerro Verde 2.5 Banro 2.5 London Mining Jersey 8% 15/02/16 2.3 Commenting on the markets, Evy Hambro, representing the Investment Manager noted: Performance The U.S. Federal Reserve announced the beginning of the highly anticipated tapering program. The program, set to begin in January 2014, will commence with an initial reduction of $10bn of bond buying per month by the Fed (from $85bn per month). The market's response to this initial announcement was rather muted, as we believe much of the market impact had already been taken into account on the back of ongoing rhetoric surrounding the commencement of tapering earlier in 2013. The majority of the base metals had a positive month, helped by some encouraging economic data in the first half of December. Copper finished the month up by 4.6%, aluminium rose by 2.6%, lead ended 6.6% higher than it started the month and zinc led the way returning 10.0%. The news that Minmetal's Century mine is reaching the end of its life brought the tightening outlook for zinc supply into focus. The Century mine is Australia's largest open pit zinc mine and has been in operation since 1997, final production from the mine is expected in mid-2015. All quotes: Thomson Reuters Datastream. Many of the major mining companies held their investor days during December. Vale, the large cap diversified miner, removed one of the impediments to its share price as the company announced it had reached a settlement on its tax issues. However, the company was then forced to declare force majeure on 27 December, as a result of heavy rain and unfavourable weather impacting operations and their iron ore shipments. Force majeure refers to a clause in contracts which can be invoked should one party be unable to deliver on their obligations due to extraordinary circumstances. This has since been lifted. In gold news, the gold price premium on the Shanghai Gold Exchange increased in December. This began to rise in the latter part of the month, as we saw increased retail buying ahead of the Chinese New Year gifting season. Barrick Gold Corp, the world's largest gold producer by production, finished the year on a high as the market responded well to news of a structural change on their board of directors and the sale of an Australian asset. Strategy / Outlook The mining sector has significantly lagged the general equity market in recent years. However, at the beginning of 2014, a number of the downside risks for this sector have reduced (albeit not disappeared). The industry has made good progress in refocusing its strategy: operating costs have been aggressively targeted and investment in projects reassessed. Many commodities are trading close to or below their marginal cost of production, implying that price downside should be limited, in the absence of a collapse in demand. The global economic backdrop is showing signs of synchronous growth and this has typically been supportive of commodity prices. The companies are trading on an undemanding valuation, as well as being at a dividend yield premium to the broader equity market, and with capital expenditure rolling off, management are guiding investors towards rising free cashflows. All data in USD terms unless otherwise stated. 13 January 2014 ENDS Latest information is available by typing www.brwmplc.co.uk on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). Neither the contents of the Manager's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.
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