Correction : Portfolio Update
The monthly announcement as at 31 January 2013 for BlackRock World Mining Trust
plc which was released on 14 February 2013 incorrectly showed fixed income
investments held by the Trust as part of net current assets/liabilities in the
sector/country classifications, which also affected the ten largest
investments. This announcement is released to include the corrected
information.
BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc
All information is at 31 January 2013 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
One Three One Three Five
Month Months Year Years Years
Net asset value (undiluted) 0.2% 1.9% -15.1% 16.6% -1.7%
Net asset value (diluted) 0.2% 1.9% -15.1% 16.6% 4.3%
Share price 3.5% 4.2% -11.2% 24.4% 9.4%
HSBC Global Mining Index* 1.3% 2.2% -12.0% 7.4% 8.5%
*Total return
Sources: BlackRock, HSBC Global Mining Index, DataStream
At month end
Net asset value Including Income Capital Only
Undiluted/diluted: 688.10p* 672.69p
*Includes net revenue of 15.41p
Share price: 607.00p
Discount to NAV**: 11.8%
Total assets: £1,323.36m
Net yield***: 3.5%
Gearing: 8.5%
Ordinary shares in issue: 177,287,242
Ordinary shares held in Treasury: 15,724,600
** Discount to NAV including Income.
*** Based on final dividend of 14.00p per share in respect of the year ended
31 December 2011 and interim dividend of 7.00p per share in respect of the
year ended 31 December 2012.
Sector % Total Country Analysis % Total
Assets Assets
Diversified 39.7 Global 47.5
Base Metals 23.0 Latin America 19.2
Industrial Minerals 15.7 Other Africa 15.4
Gold 9.4 Australasia 6.6
Silver & Diamonds 9.0 South Africa 5.6
Platinum 2.8 Democratic Republic of Congo 1.8
Energy Minerals 0.3 Emerging Europe 1.4
Net current assets 0.1 USA 1.3
----- Canada 0.6
100.0 Indonesia 0.3
===== Mongolia 0.2
Net current assets 0.1
-----
100.0
=====
Ten Largest Investments % Total
Assets
Company
Rio Tinto 10.2
BHP Billiton 9.0
Glencore Finance 6.3
London Mining Marampa Contract 5.3
Freeport McMoRan 4.4
First Quantum Minerals 4.0
Industrias Penoles 4.0
Xstrata 3.8
Teck Resources 3.7
Fresnillo 3.6
Commenting on the markets, Evy Hambro, representing the Investment Manager
noted:
Performance
2013 began with both global equities and mining equities rising as improving
economic data and the averted fiscal cliff provided momentum to the market.
While global equities continued their upward trajectory, mining equities paused
slightly before weakening at the end of the month as the market took profits
following their strong run since the market low in September.
Commodity prices continued their strong run into 2013 with the base metals,
copper, tin and nickel returning 2.8%, 5.9% and 7.5% in January respectively.
Iron ore continued its meteoric rise, hitting a high of $158.50/t during the
month. The iron ore price rose at a faster pace than the domestic Chinese
steel prices, which, when combined with a number of commodities hitting recent
highs, may cause some investors to question the sustainability of the rally.
Purchasing Managers' Index ("PMI") data in January, used as a proxy to show
industrial production, indicated that many countries industrial output were
showing signs of improvement. Chinese PMI data was mixed: data produced by the
National Bureau of Statistics showed Chinese PMI contracting marginally to 50.4
while the data from HSBC beat market consensus by rising to 51.9. As both
indices posted PMIs above 50, indicating that industrial production in China is
expanding, this provided an optimistic outlook for the commodities sector.
Mining companies provided a number of updates in January; Rio Tinto announced
$14bn of write downs from their acquisitions of Riversdale and Alcan. These
were combined with the news that Tom Albanese would be replaced with Sam Walsh
(previously head of the iron ore division) as CEO. While this news initially
appeared to concern the market, we remain comfortable with our holding as the
write downs reflect poor investments made in the past which the market has
already largely taken into account and the new CEO has been a long standing
member of the management team at Rio Tinto.
Following the departure of Cynthia Carroll (CEO of Anglo American) in late
2012, the market has been awaiting the news of who would be appointed as a
replacement CEO. In early 2013, Mark Cutifani (currently the CEO of AngloGold
Ashanti) was named as her replacement, starting the role in April 2013. The
company also informed the market of a $4bn write down at their Minas Rio iron
ore asset in Brazil as delays and rising costs have impacted the value of the
asset.
The company also carried out a strategic review of their platinum business,
Anglo American Platinum, highlighting the unprofitable nature of these mature
high cost assets and placing a number of unsustainable projects into care and
maintenance. This put 14,000 jobs 'at risk' and resulted in a backlash from
the unions and government in South Africa adding further tensions to the South
African mining industry.
Strategy/Outlook
Monetary stimulus in its various forms is typically good for commodities, at
least in the short term. In the longer term, inflationary pressures introduced
by quantitative easing can be supportive of commodity prices. In addition,
recent economic data has provided some encouraging indicators on growth
conditions in China, the US and elsewhere.
For certain commodities, the supply side continues to be challenged by both
short term factors, such as weather events, and longer term ones, such as
labour shortages and grade declines. These structural issues are supportive of
prices where demand remains robust.
Mining company valuations continue to trade below historical averages and there
is in our view the potential for strong returns over the medium term. We
remain focused on companies with balance sheet strength and high asset quality
as we believe these factors will be key differentiators. In addition, the
market is becoming increasingly discerning about capital allocation by mining
managements. Companies must show themselves to be highly disciplined in their
approach to costs and management of their assets.
21 February 2013
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.