Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc  (LEI - LNFFPBEUZJBOSR6PW155)
All information is at 31 October 2018 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
		One				Three				One	Three		Five
		Month				Months				Year	Years		Years
Net asset value		-5.1%				-9.6%				-0.7%	91.6%		-2.0%
Share price		-6.1%				-10.4%				-6.4%	78.8%		-3.8%
EMIX Global Mining Index (Net)*		-3.3%				-7.7%				0.6%	89.2%		9.8%
(Total return)
Sources: BlackRock, EMIX Global Mining Index, Datastream
* The Company’s performance benchmark (the EMIX Global Mining Total Return Index) may be calculated on either a Gross or a Net return basis.  Net return (NR) indices calculate the reinvestment of dividends net of withholding taxes using the tax rates applicable to non-resident institutional investors, and hence give a lower total return than indices where calculations are on a Gross basis.  As the Company is subject to the same withholding tax rates for the countries in which it invests, the NR basis is felt to be the most accurate, appropriate, consistent and fair comparison for the Company.
At month end
Net asset value including income1:									404.55p
Net asset value capital only:									394.07p
1 Includes net revenue of 10.48p
Share price:									343.50p
Discount to NAV2:									15.1%
Total assets:									£827.3m
Net yield3:									4.5%
Net gearing:									14.1%
Ordinary shares in issue:									176,330,242
Ordinary shares held in treasury:									16,681,600
Ongoing charges4:									1.00%
2 Discount to NAV including income. 3 Based on quarterly interim dividends of 3.00p per share declared on 25 April 2018 and 16 August 2018 in respect of the year ending 31 December 2018 and a quarterly interim dividend of 3.00p per share declared on 10 November 2017 and a final dividend of 6.60p per share in respect of the year ended 31 December 2017. 4 Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding finance costs, for the year ended 31 December 2017.
Sector	% Total						Country Analysis					% Total
	Assets											Assets
Diversified	47.3						Global					59.2
Copper	18.1						Latin America					11.7
Gold	14.3						Australasia					11.4
Silver & Diamonds	8.1						Canada					6.9
Industrial Minerals	6.3						Other Africa					4.4
Aluminium	1.0						USA					2.0
Mining	1.0						South Africa					0.9
Steel	0.8						Kazakhstan					0.6
Zinc	0.8						Russia					0.4
Nickel	0.4						Indonesia					0.4
Materials	0.1						Peru					0.2
Iron Ore	0.1						Argentina					0.1
Current Assets	1.7						Mexico					0.1
	-----						Current Assets					1.7
	100.0											-----
	=====											100.0
												=====
Ten Largest Investments
Company				% Total Assets
Vale					10.4
Rio Tinto					9.7
BHP					9.6
Glencore					8.2
First Quantum Minerals					6.0
Teck Resources					4.4
Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde					3.0
Mountain Province Diamonds					2.8
Avanco Resources - royalty					2.6
Northern Star Resources					2.4

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

Performance

The Company’s NAV decreased by 5.1% in October, underperforming its benchmark, the EMIX Global Mining Index (net return), which decreased by 3.3%.

October was a very challenging month for broader equity markets, with the MSCI World Index down by 7.3% and the VIX volatility index doubling, as concerns around rising interest rates, inflation and tariffs weighed on the market. As a cyclical sector, mining was caught up in the weakness but it was interesting to see the sector modestly outperform broader equity markets. In contrast to the equity moves, economic data from China remained resilient, with its manufacturing PMI increasing to 50.1, up from 50.0 in September. Meanwhile, within the mined commodities, we continued to see physically-traded commodities outperform more financially-traded commodities. The iron ore (62% fe) price finished the month up by 8.6% and the copper price ended down by 3.6%, for example. This is a trend we have commented on for several months now and one that suggests to us that physical supply and demand in most mined commodities remains tight. This is also backed up by the declining inventory levels we have seen for most mined commodities. Elsewhere, with the rise in volatility and broader market sell-off, the gold price benefited from ‘safe-haven’ buying, increasing by 2.0%. (All returns in USD.)

The Company’s underperformance during the month was primarily driven by our beta versus our benchmark being modestly above one, as well as our copper bias. Positions in copper producers Lundin Mining, Ero Copper and First Quantum all appeared amongst the largest detractors.

Not holding major gold producer Barrick Gold also detracted from relative performance. The company performed well on the back of the rising gold price and on the proposed merger of equals with Randgold Resources. The impact of this was, however, broadly offset by our position in Randgold Resources, which also benefited.

On the positive side, our position in Vale appeared among the top performers. Vale has benefited from higher grade iron ore continuing to trade at a healthy premium to lower grade, a trend we have seen driven by China’s crackdown on inefficient steel production and stricter environmental standards.

Strategy and Outlook

After strong years in 2016 and 2017, this year has been more challenging for the mining sector so far. Sentiment has deteriorated on trade tensions and mined commodity prices have fallen across the board as a result. It has been interesting to see financially-traded commodities (e.g. copper, zinc and aluminium) underperforming the physically-traded ones (e.g. iron ore and steel), where investors are unable to speculate as much. This suggests to us that underlying fundamentals remain strong and weakness has been mainly driven by speculation. Meanwhile, underlying demand conditions in China appear to be stable, whilst we are seeing early signs of stimulus coming through. We believe we could be at peak pessimism around trade wars and are looking to add risk in the Company. Meanwhile, mining shares are trading on attractive multiples versus history and relative to broader equities. The sector is trading on close to its highest ever free cash flow yield, whilst relative price-to-book is close to a historic low. Finally, we believe the capital discipline story remains intact as management teams remain focused on capital discipline and shareholder returns.

All data points are in GBP terms unless stated otherwise.

26 November 2018

Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/brwm on the internet. 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.