Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc All information is at 31 July 2009 and unaudited. Performance at month end with net income reinvested One Three One Three Five Month Months Year Years Years Net asset value* (undiluted) 14.7% 19.7% -31.1% 10.3% 161.7% Net asset value* (diluted) 14.7% 19.7% -30.4% 11.6% 155.2% Share price* 11.9% 14.7% -28.6% 12.4% 143.9% HSBC Global Mining Index 12.8% 19.9% -16.5% 33.3% 181.7% Sources: BlackRock, HSBC Global Mining Index, Datastream * Net asset value and share price performance includes the warrant reinvestment, assuming the 2004 and 2006 bonus warrant entitlement per share was sold and the proceeds reinvested on the first day of trading. At month end Net asset value Including Income Capital only Undiluted/Diluted: 502.09p# 498.73p # Includes net revenue of 3.36p Share price: 430.00p Discount to NAV**: 13.78% Total assets***: £892.52m Net yield: 1.28% Gearing: Nil Ordinary shares in issue##: 177,762,242 ## Excluding 15,249,600 shares held in treasury. ** Discount to NAV based on capital only. *** Includes current year revenue. Sector % Total Country Analysis % Total Assets Assets Diversified 44.3 Latin America 29.2 Base Metals 20.3 Global 20.1 Gold 13.1 South Africa 10.1 Platinum 7.7 Australasia 9.5 Silver/Diamonds 6.6 Other Africa 7.9 Industrial Minerals 6.4 Canada 7.0 Other 1.1 Indonesia 6.1 Net current assets 0.5 USA 4.1 India 3.6 Europe 1.0 Emerging Asia 0.9 Net current assets 0.5 ----- ----- 100.0 100.0 ===== ===== Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order) Company BHP Billiton First Quantum Minerals Fresnillo Freeport McMoRan Impala Platinum Minas Buenaventura Newcrest Mining Rio Tinto Teck Resources Vale Commenting on the markets, Evy Hambro, representing the Investment Manager noted: Performance The month was a strong period for the mining market with most metals posting sizeable gains. The main driver of this performance was increasingly positive sentiment towards the sector as a result of better-than-expected second quarter company earnings and above expectation US employment numbers. Claims that US GDP showed signs of stabilisation in the second quarter and that the housing market was recovering helped the view that the pace of US demand decline was meaningfully slowing and that it may emerge from a recession before the end of the year. US steel utilisation rates also showed signs of improvement, moving up into the mid-fifties (%) range, having been in the mid-thirties (%) range at their lows. Chinese imports of copper, iron ore and coking coal all continued at high levels during the month, pushing the spot prices of iron ore and coking coal to levels significantly above benchmark prices (these metals are traded on annual contracts in the most part). It was also worth noting that Chinese auto sales were up around 63% in July (y-o-y) and US car sales came in at an annualised rate of around 11.2mn for the month, which was above expectations. Indeed, Goldman Sachs upgraded their estimate of 2009 Chinese GDP to 9.4% (from 8.3%), a bullish estimate for the mining sector. During the month, we visited some copper, platinum, uranium and coal assets in Southern Africa. The general tone was positive but afforded us some interesting insights. Companies seem willing to undertake capital projects again but they are often in a small form to that which they had originally planned. Financing concerns are easing but it remains very hard to arrange financing unless the company has other operating assets or have a world class project. Companies also continue to struggle to deliver projects on time and on budget. Looking to the portfolio, our positions in companies such as First Quantum and Teck Resources were amongst the strongest contributors to performance over the course of the month, as they benefited from the rising copper and coking coal prices. Our holdings in gold miners were amongst the detractors to relative performance as the gold price was generally flat over the course of the month whilst other metals rallied on the back of improving sentiment. Portfolio Activity We continue to exercise caution in the portfolio as we are wary of a pull back following the recent rally. We have retained our exposure to the major diversified mining companies and bulk commodity producers which we believe will be less affected by any potential change in market sentiment. We slightly increased our exposure to selected copper producers. Strategy/Outlook In recent weeks, we have seen a powerful rally in the mining market as sentiment has turned around; however, we remain cautious whilst underlying fundamentals remain uncertain. We may also see some weakness in commodity markets as we move through the northern hemisphere summer, typically a weak period for these markets. We would view this as a buying opportunity going into what we expect to be a strong fourth quarter but for the moment we are building our positions in the stronger diversified miners over and above the more leveraged pure plays. The longer term picture remains broadly the same. Our expectation is China will have the most influence over the demand picture for commodities and given its commodity-intensive stimulus package and the broader industrialisation story we expect China to lead the way. With respect to supply, the premature closure of ageing mines we have seen over the last six months, combined with the cutting of expenditure on future growth projects means that when demand does begin to grow, supply will be unable to respond fast enough and thus we believe the seeds of the next commodities cycle have been sown. Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/its on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). 17 August 2009
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