Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc
All information is at 31 July 2015 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
		One			Three				One	Three		Five
		Month			Months				Year	Years		Years
Net asset value		-13.2%			-23.9%				-44.8%	-51.4%		-53.1%
Share price		-14.5%			-21.9%				-47.3%	-49.3%		-48.5%
Euromoney Global Mining Index		-13.1%			-25.3%				-37.2%	-42.3%		-49.2%
(Total return)
Sources: BlackRock, Euromoney Global Mining Index, Datastream
At month end
Net asset value including income*:								273.18p
Net asset value capital only:								262.83p
*Includes net revenue of 10.35p
Share price:								246.75p
Discount to NAV**:								9.7%
Total assets:								£558.3m
Net yield***:								8.5%
Net gearing:								16.2%
Ordinary shares in issue:								177,287,242
Ordinary shares held in treasury:								15,724,600
Ongoing charges****:								1.4%
** Discount to NAV including income. *** Based on an interim dividend of 7.00p for the year ending 31 December 2015 and a final dividend of 14.00p in respect of the year ended 31 December 2014. **** Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding finance costs, for the year ended 31 December 2014.
Sector	% Total					Country Analysis					% Total
	Assets										Assets
Diversified	43.6					Global					52.6
Base Metals	22.1					Latin America					15.4
Gold	12.5					Australasia					8.5
Silver & Diamonds	10.4					Other Africa					7.4
Industrial Minerals	4.8					Canada					6.7
Other	4.0					Emerging Europe					4.8
Energy Minerals	2.2					South Africa					2.6
Aluminium	0.8					China					2.2
Zinc	0.4					Indonesia					0.6
Net current liabilities	(0.8)					Net current liabilities					(0.8)
	-----										-----
	100.0										100.0
	=====										=====
Ten Largest Investments
Company				% Total Assets
BHP Billiton				14.4
Rio Tinto				11.1
First Quantum Minerals				7.7
Glencore				5.6
Lundin Mining				4.9
Norilsk Nickel				4.4
Cerro Verde				3.8
Fresnillo				3.2
Iluka Resources				2.9
Hudbay Minerals				2.8

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

Performance

It was a trying month for the mining sector as mined commodity prices trended lower across the board. The iron ore price fared the worst, down -10.8%, but base and precious metal prices were also weak with copper, aluminium, nickel and gold falling -9.3%, -7.9%, -4.2% and -6.4% respectively. The market had been looking for a pick-up in commodity demand in H2 2015 – this expectation has now been pushed out to 2016.

Economic data from China continued to undershoot expectations, weighing on the outlook for commodity demand. Data reports included China’s flash PMI remaining stubbornly below 50, auto sales recording year-on-year declines and falling domestic steel demand driving the Chinese steel rebar price down to its lowest level since 2003. Positively, property prices in China’s tier 1 and 2 cities showed signs of stabilisation; however, this was not significant enough to allay the market’s concerns that stimulus measures were not providing the desired level of support to the Chinese economy. In addition, volatility continued to persist in Chinese equity markets, with the Shanghai Composite Index declining 14.5% over the month. As investors are unable to short China-listed equities, short sellers turned their attention to mining shares as they sought a proxy for China.

In company news, Anglo American reported its interim results during the month. The company announced further cuts to capital expenditure and maintained its interim dividend of $0.32. The market now looks ahead to the results announcements from the other major diversified miners for further guidance on dividend sustainability and the supply outlook within the mining sector.

The Company’s overweight position in copper-focused mining company, First Quantum, was the largest detractor over the month. The company announced weaker-than expected results and was negatively impacted by new electricity restrictions at its Zambian operations, as well as substantial confusion amongst investors post the company’s release of technical reports without explanatory commentary alongside them.

In our view some of the selling within the mining sector seen during the month was indiscriminate, so we took the opportunity to add to our favoured names that we believed had been oversold.

Within the Company’s unquoted investments, following recent gold price weakness and in line with the fall in the price of Banro’s senior secured notes, the Board in conjunction with a recommendation from the BlackRock Pricing Committee, has increased the discount applied against the valuation of the gold-linked preference shares from 15% to 30%. This has resulted in a 47bps reduction to the NAV of the Company from 14 August 2015.

All data points in USD terms.

Strategy and Outlook

Good company strategy has been outweighed by weakening commodity demand and falling commodity prices in the past year. Looking ahead, the outlook for commodity prices remains subdued, given expectations of further US dollar strength and a modest demand outlook. This pressure will continue to force tough decisions and mining companies are likely to remain in austerity mode. Recent commodity price falls suggest further cuts to analyst earnings will be required. As the year progresses, we would expect an acceleration of closures of high-cost capacity in oversupplied markets. This bodes well for the longer term and limits the industry’s ability to respond to the next upturn in demand which will ultimately see prices go higher.

While the sector continues to face headwinds, it is important to remember that we are another year further into the underinvestment phase and closer to the deficit markets that we foresee. We expect an inflection point to be reached once price (and consequently return) expectations start to recover as a result of the supply curtailment, which should accelerate with the current commodity price weakness.

17 August 2015

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.