Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc
All information is at 30 November 2016 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
		One			Three				One	Three		Five
		Month			Months				Year	Years		Years
Net asset value		0.2%			16.8%				85.3%	-8.5%		-37.4%
Share price		-0.2%			16.5%				80.4%	-11.8%		-32.3%
Euromoney Global Mining Index		-0.9%			15.5%				89.4%	6.5%		-26.5%
(Total return)
Sources: BlackRock, Euromoney Global Mining Index, Datastream
At month end
Net asset value including income*:								370.05p
Net asset value capital only:								377.67p
*Includes net revenue of 7.62p
Share price:								327.25p
Discount to NAV**:								13.4%
Total assets:								£756.9m
Net yield***:								5.5%
Net gearing:								13.4%
Ordinary shares in issue:								176,455,242
Ordinary shares held in treasury:								16,556,600
Ongoing charges****:								1.2%
** Discount to NAV including income. *** Based on an interim dividend of 4.00p in respect of the year ending 31 December 2016 and a final dividend of 14.00p 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	48.1					Global					61.6
Copper	19.2					Latin America					11.0
Gold	18.8					Australasia					7.0
Silver & Diamonds	9.9					Other Africa					6.8
Industrial Minerals	3.4					Canada					6.8
Zinc	0.7					Emerging Europe					4.5
Iron ore	0.1					South Africa					1.9
Net current liabilities	(0.2)					Indonesia					0.3
	-----					Tanzania					0.3
	100.0					Net current liabilities					(0.2)
	=====										-----
											100.0
											=====
Ten Largest Investments
Company				% Total Assets
First Quantum Minerals				9.8
Rio Tinto				9.5
BHP Billiton				8.2
Glencore				6.6
Vale				5.6
Lundin Mining				4.4
Norilsk Nickel				4.4
Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde				3.3
Teck Resources				3.2
South 32				2.7

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

Performance

The US presidential election was the key market event in November as the Dow Jones breached 19,000 (an all-time high) following the surprise triumph of the republican candidate, Donald Trump. The base metals rallied strongly as the market appeared to rotate in preparation for a reflationary environment with copper, zinc and nickel increasing by 20.1%, 9.6% and 7.3% respectively. The bulk commodities also benefited as the president elect reiterated his plan to focus on infrastructure investment; iron ore and coking coal finished the month 14.0% and 23.3% higher respectively.

Elsewhere, China's economy continued to show signs of stabilization in November with two separate manufacturing surveys pointing to better-than-expected growth. The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which measures large state-owned factories, came in at 51.7 in November – matching the previous high in July 2014 and the highest since the 53.3 hit in April 2012. The official PMI was an improvement from 51.2 in October and beat analyst predictions of a 51.0 reading.

A number of the mining companies reported robust results during the month and made positive steps towards returning capital to shareholders. This included diversified miners Vale and Glencore reinstating their dividends and Lundin Mining initiating a dividend for the first time.

Gold declined by 7.9%, finishing the month at the bottom of the range experienced during November, with the yellow metal seeing a high of $1,305/oz and a low of $1,174/oz, as investors continued to search for yielding assets.

Strategy and Outlook

After an extended down-cycle, January 2016 appears to have marked the bottom for the mining sector. The sector has performed strongly this year, primarily driven by commodity prices bouncing off the multi-year lows we saw at the end of 2015. Nonetheless, positioning surveys suggest investors remain cautious of the sector, given several years of severe underperformance, and the sector continues to be under-owned relative to history. Sentiment towards China has improved since the lows of Q3 2015 and the Chinese government’s stimulus package early this year has fed through into improved economic data points such as PMI figures above 50 and increases in property prices. At the same time, we have seen mining companies focus on cutting costs, reducing debt and improving balance sheets.

Looking ahead, we expect the mining sector’s performance to remain somewhat volatile in the near-term but we see the medium to long-term outlook as positive. The situation in China has improved but overall global economic growth is likely to remain low for some time. The impact of the mining sector slashing capital expenditure and underinvesting over the past few years is beginning to be felt by global production. Finally, whilst the sector has performed well this year, it has only returned to July 2015 levels and with many of the miners trading at attractive free cash flow yields, valuations still at relative lows and commodity prices surprising to the upside, the risk of being underweight the sector remains.

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

13 December 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.