Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc  (LEI - LNFFPBEUZJBOSR6PW155)
All information is at 31 January 2018 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
		One			Three				One	Three		Five
		Month			Months				Year	Years		Years
Net asset value		-1.5%			6.8%				9.9%	56.3%		-15.9%
Share price		-0.1%			4.7%				9.3%	61.9%		-12.9%
Euromoney Global Mining Index		0.2%			8.2%				7.7%	48.3%		-3.2%
(Total return)
Sources: BlackRock, Euromoney Global Mining Index, Datastream
At month end
Net asset value including income1:								448.39p
Net asset value capital only:								441.79p
1 Includes net revenue of 6.58p
Share price:								397.50p
Discount to NAV2:								11.3%
Total assets:								£885.7m
Net yield3:								4.5%
Net gearing:								12.4%
Ordinary shares in issue:								176,455,242
Ordinary shares held in treasury:								16,556,600
Ongoing charges4:								1.10%
2 Discount to NAV including income. 3 Based on quarterly interim dividends of 3.00p per share declared on 4 May 2017, 10 August 2017 and 10 November 2017 in respect of the year ended 31 December 2017 and a final dividend of 9.00p per share in respect of the year ended 31 December 2016. 4 Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding finance costs, for the year ended 31 December 2016.
Sector	% Total					Country Analysis					% Total
	Assets										Assets
Diversified	49.9					Global					63.7
Copper	19.6					Latin America					11.5
Gold	14.9					Australasia					10.2
Silver & Diamonds	7.7					Other Africa					6.4
Industrial Minerals	6.3					Canada					5.5
Zinc	1.7					USA					1.1
Aluminium	0.3					India					0.7
Iron Ore	0.1					South Africa					0.6
Net current liabilities	(0.5)					Russia					0.4
	-----					Kazakhstan					0.4
	100.0					Net current liabilities					(0.5)
	=====										-----
											100.0
											=====
Ten Largest Investments
Company				% Total Assets
Glencore				9.2
Rio Tinto				8.9
BHP				8.8
Vale				7.6
First Quantum Minerals				7.3
Teck Resources				6.1
Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde				3.5
South32				3.1
Newmont Mining				3.1
Newcrest Mining				2.3

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

Performance

The Company’s NAV decreased by 1.5% in January, underperforming its benchmark, the Euromoney Global Mining Index, which rose by 0.2%.

The mining sector had a strong start to 2018 buoyed by broadly positive performance from the mined commodities and optimism ahead of the sector’s reporting season in February. The macroeconomic backdrop remained supportive for mining with consensus being that 2018 will be a year of synchronous and stable global economic growth. The International Monetary Fund is now expecting global growth to increase at 3.9% this year, which would be the fastest pace for seven years. Meanwhile, China’s official GDP data suggested its economy grew by 6.9% in 2017, marking the first year since 2010 that growth accelerated.

In the base metals space, zinc and nickel prices rose by 7.7% and 6.7% respectively, whilst copper gave back some of its recent gains, falling by 1.8%. Gold and silver prices were up 2.9% and 1.3% respectively, supported by continued US dollar weakness. Meanwhile, bulk commodity prices softened, with coking coal down by 1.6% and iron ore down by 1.4%, however still sitting at high levels versus Q4 2017.

Strategy and Outlook

After two strong years, investors that have not been exposed to mining may now be questioning if they have missed the opportunity. We are, however, still a long way below the peak in 2011 and the sector continues to trade at a valuation discount to broader equity markets. Meanwhile, the miners are trading on very attractive cash flow multiples with Glencore, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto all currently trading at forward free cash flow yields of around 10% for example. For the mined commodities, in most cases, we believe they look reasonably fairly priced and so our base case is that they remain relatively range-bound at current levels which sees healthy profitability for the sector. Crucially, however, mining equities are still pricing in commodity prices well below current spot prices and, as such, we are constructive on the shares but neutral the commodities themselves. Many still distrust the miners, expecting them to make the same mistakes of the past in terms of poor capital discipline. Our view though is that the pain of the recent down-cycle is still too fresh in the minds of management teams for this to become a widespread issue in the near-term. We have begun to see moderate increases in sustaining capex announced, but we believe for the most part these have been necessary increases rather than indicative of a widespread return to poor capital discipline.

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

12 February 2018

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.