Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc All information is at 31 May 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) 12.4% 45.7% -46.4% 4.9% 149.6% Net asset value* (diluted) 12.4% 45.7% -45.4% 5.9% 142.8% Share price* 11.0% 47.8% -43.1% 10.1% 143.7% HSBC Global Mining Index 14.2% 44.7% -32.4% 27.4% 178.3% 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: 471.57p # 469.35p #Includes net revenue of 2.22p Share price: 416.00p Discount to NAV**: 11.37% Total assets***: £838.26m Net yield: 1.32% Gearing: 0% 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 40.5 Latin America 30.8 Base Metals 16.2 Global 16.8 Gold 14.4 South Africa 12.0 Platinum 9.4 Australasia 9.6 Silver/Diamonds 7.4 Canada 6.5 Industrial Minerals 6.5 Other Africa 5.9 Other 2.1 USA 5.2 Net current assets 3.5 Indonesia 4.8 India 3.0 Europe 0.8 Emerging Asia 0.6 Laos 0.5 Net current assets 3.5 ----- ----- 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 Cominco Vale Commenting on the markets, Evy Hambro^, representing the Investment Manager noted: Market review The month saw a strong rally in both commodities and equity markets as investors became more confident of a potential recovery in the global economy. A generally weaker trend to the US Dollar was also positive for commodity prices during the month. Commodity prices have started to stabilise in recent months: coking and thermal coal contract prices, despite being down on 2008, were settled above market expectations and iron ore contract prices look like they will fall within the consensus range. Copper, nickel and zinc prices are up strongly from their lows last year; even aluminium, which has lagged behind the other metals, is up over 10% from its low. While warehouse inventories have increased for base metals, given the severity of the down turn, the fact that they appear to have stabilised at or below the absolute levels seen at the bottom of the last cycle is positive for prices going forward. It is even more encouraging when looked at on a "days of consumption" basis - copper inventories, for example, are currently at around four days of global consumption compared to over three weeks during the previous bear market. One of the reasons for this is due, on the supply side, to the rapid reaction of the mining companies in cutting production in the face of demand deterioration and falling commodity prices. In previous cycles production cuts took longer to occur as each producer hoped another player would make the first move. This change in behaviour is in part due to the industry consolidation that has taken place over the last decade. This has allowed companies to cut marginal production more rapidly as it now sits within a larger production base and therefore makes less of a difference to the overall production profile of the companies. It also reveals a discipline within the industry that has not been seen in previous cycles and which should provide some support for commodity prices in the future. In addition, companies have slashed capital expenditure budgets for 2009 and 2010 in order to conserve cash in light of debt being harder to come by. The longer term impact of this is yet to be seen, but is likely to delay projects by at least two to three years thereby limiting supply growth when demand recovers. On the demand side, it is the strength of the Chinese economy that many market participants are focusing on. The nature of China's command economy has meant that the government's stimulus package announced last November has already filtered down into the real economy - unlike the US. Government-driven lending has spurred activity and consequently economic data for the first quarter reveals a sharp turnaround in the direction of the Chinese economy: GDP and industrial production growth rates appear to have bottomed, auto sales and retail sales have picked up and fixed asset investment is strong. On an annualised basis, steel production is now ahead of 2008 and imports of iron ore, thermal coal and copper have hit record highs. This compares to the US and Europe where economic data continues to worsen, auto-manufacturers are declaring bankruptcy and steel companies are operating at below 50% utilisation rates. The consequence of this is that China is virtually single-handedly supporting current commodity price levels. An illustration of this was given to us by the management of Vale, the world's largest iron ore producer. In 2008, only 35% of Vale's iron ore was sold to China and 46% to the Americas and Europe: in the first quarter of 2009, 60% was sold to China and only 17% to Europe and America. Strategy/Outlook In recent weeks, we have seen a strong rally in the mining sector but we remain cautious given the possibility of some weakness in the northern hemisphere summer. We 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 the same. Our expectation is China will have 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 means that when demand does begin to grow, supply will be unable to respond fast enough and thus the seeds of the next commodities cycle have been sown. ^ Graham Birch is on sabbatical until next year. 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). 24 June 2009
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