Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc
All information is at 31 March 2016 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
		One			Three				One	Three		Five
		Month			Months				Year	Years		Years
Net asset value		7.1%			23.0%				-19.5%	-51.6%		-66.4%
Share price		15.7%			28.5%				-18.2%	-49.2%		-64.3%
Euromoney Global Mining Index		8.8%			26.6%				-19.3%	-43.4%		-61.2%
(Total return)
Sources: BlackRock, Euromoney Global Mining Index, Datastream
At month end
Net asset value including income*:								247.70p
Net asset value capital only:								243.61p
*Includes net revenue of 4.09p
Share price:								218.50p
Discount to NAV**:								11.8%
Total assets:								£488.3m
Net yield***:								9.6%
Net gearing:								11.6%
Ordinary shares in issue:								176,705,242
Ordinary shares held in treasury:								16,306,600
Ongoing charges****:								1.2%
** Discount to NAV including income. *** Based on an interim dividend of 7.00p per share and a final dividend of 14.00p per share in respect of the year ended 31 December 2015. **** Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding finance costs for the year ended 31 December 2015.
Sector	% Total					Country Analysis					% Total
	Assets										Assets
Diversified	36.0					Global					49.3
Gold	22.5					Latin America					17.8
Copper	21.0					Australasia					10.4
Silver & Diamonds	15.5					Other Africa					10.2
Industrial Minerals	5.1					Canada					8.5
Nickel	4.2					Emerging Europe					4.9
Iron Ore	0.1					South Africa					3.5
Other	0.7					Indonesia					0.5
Net current liabilities	(5.1)					Net current liabilities					(5.1)
	-----										-----
	100.0										100.0
	=====										=====
Ten Largest Investments
Company				% Total Assets
BHP Billiton				10.0
Rio Tinto				9.4
Glencore				6.9
First Quantum Minerals				6.7
Lundin Mining				5.1
Fresnillo				5.0
Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde				4.6
Norilsk Nickel				4.2
Randgold Resources				3.3
Newcrest Mining				3.3

Commenting on the markets, Evy Hambro and Olivia Markham, representing the Investment Manager noted:

Performance

The mining sector continued to strongly outperform broader equity markets, with the sector up +23% year-to-date to the end of March. This appeared to be driven by an improvement in the short term outlook for China, with the government providing support to infrastructure projects and increasing liquidity into the market, as well as short-covering and some investor rotation back into the space (from a point of extreme underweight positioning). Better-than-expected economic data emerged from China which included a manufacturing PMI reading above 50 and stronger property data such as a +13.7% increase in housing starts over the first two months of the year. These data points somewhat eased the market’s concerns around the potential for a hard landing in China. Meanwhile, mined commodity price performance was mixed but generally positive with iron ore, copper and zinc prices rising +8.8%, +3.7% and +2.8% respectively.

During the month, the Company continued to increase its exposure to Glencore, with the company continuing to progress asset sales with the target of reducing net debt to US$15bn by the end of 2017. The Company continued to increase its precious metals exposure taking part in two equity raisings during the month, as well as adding to some of our preferred gold names.

Among the Company’s unquoted holdings, the final US$4m payment was made under the Avanco Royalty contract. The project is in the final stages of ramp-up and continues to progress well. The project is expected to reach commercial production during Q2-16, with the company targeting an early spot sale of 500t of concentrate.

Strategy and Outlook

The key focus for the mining sector is currently whether underlying commodity demand (principally in China) is maintained and if it will continue to improve during the second quarter of 2016. We have seen some early signs of a pick-up in demand with improvements in the property markets, steel prices and liquidity, but we need to see further evidence to feel comfortable that the positive share price performance this year has been driven by improved fundamentals, as opposed, to short covering/investor positioning.

Today, many mined commodities’ prices sit well below marginal costs, which should mean that downside for prices is limited. However, commodity cost curves have been compressed, as the sector has been able to meaningfully cut costs and weakening commodity currencies (such as the Australian and Canadian dollar) and lower oil prices have provided additional cost benefits. Fundamentally, whilst supply can be sticky for a number of reasons, a cash negative operation cannot persist indefinitely. We have just begun to see the first of the long-awaited supply cuts announced but mined commodity prices will need to remain at current levels for a few months or move lower before we see real momentum in cuts. In light of this, we expect to see companies further reduce capital spending and operating costs this year in order to bolster their balance sheets.

All data points are in US dollar terms unless stated otherwise.

21 April 2016

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.