Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc All information is at 31 December 2010 and unaudited. Performance at month end with net income reinvested One Three One Three Five Month Months Year Years Years Net asset value* (undiluted) 14.0% 25.9% 46.3% 23.0% 157.1% Net asset value* (diluted) 14.0% 25.9% 46.3% 31.6% 153.8% Share price* 14.0% 29.7% 48.6% 28.2% 146.6% HSBC Global Mining Index 11.5% 22.2% 35.6% 43.8% 170.5% 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: 961.79p# 955.04p # Includes net revenue of 6.75p Share price: 811.00p Discount to NAV**: 15.1% Total assets: £1,735.8m Net yield: 0.6% Gearing: 1.6% Ordinary shares in issue: 177,537,242 Ordinary shares held in Treasury: 15,474,600 ** Discount to NAV based on capital only. Sector % Total Country Analysis % Total Assets Assets Diversified 40.1 Latin America 27.5 Base Metals 25.7 Global 23.7 Gold 11.1 Australasia 12.9 Industrial Minerals 8.7 Other Africa 10.6 Silver & Diamonds 8.1 South Africa 8.8 Platinum 6.0 Canada 6.9 Other 0.9 Indonesia 3.8 Net current liabilities (0.6) USA 2.6 ----- Emerging Europe 1.8 100.0 India 1.1 ===== Mongolia 0.1 Europe 0.8 Net current liabilities (0.6) ----- 100.0 ===== Ten Largest Investments (in alphabetical order) Company BHP Billiton First Quantum Minerals Freeport McMoRan Fresnillo Glencore Finance (Europe) 5% 31/12/14 Impala Platinum Minas Buenaventura Rio Tinto Teck Resources Vale Commenting on the markets, Evy Hambro, representing the Investment Manager noted: Performance Equity markets spent much of December focused on China. On 13 December, the world's second largest economy raised its reserve ratio by a hundred basis points and on Christmas Day increased base interest rates by a quarter of a percent, both in an effort to cool inflation (CPI) which hit 5.1% in November. Amidst the policy tightening, data was released showing that Chinese copper and iron ore imports snapped higher in November. The policy measures did not unsettle the mining sector or stop it from finishing the year with considerable momentum. Copper reached all time highs in December and finished the month at $9,650 a tonne, having risen by 14.6% over the course of it. Robust demand from China and the US, coupled with low inventory levels, has kept the copper market tight throughout 2010. The launch of ETF Securities' copper ETF vehicle in December, and port loading troubles at the Collahuasi mine in Chile, offered some short term impetus as well. Tin prices gained by 9.9% over the month and aluminium appreciated by 9.1%. Coal markets underwent significant disruption in December, as torrential rains and flooding in Queensland prompted many producers in the region to declare 'force majeure' on January shipments. Queensland, according to Goldman Sachs data, accounted for 58% of hard coking coal and 38% of semi-soft coking coal and PCI seaborne trade in 2010. The impact of the floods will be particularly acute therefore in markets for these coal types. Rio Tinto rounded the year off with some corporate activity. The company announced it had reached a new financial agreement with Ivanhoe in which it will assume management control of the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold development. Rio Tinto also launched a A$3.9bn friendly cash offer for Riversdale Mining, a junior coal developer with coking coal assets in Mozambique. Strategy/Outlook Our outlook for the mining sector continues to be positive as we start 2011. Its strength in December indicated the strong fundamental drivers underpinning it: robust demand from emerging markets accompanied by improving demand in developed economies and constrained supply in select commodities. The monetary policy tightening measures taken by China should, in our view, be taken as a positive indication of the country's ability to manage its economy and not as a forebear of a potential hard landing. Given the volumes of free cashflow mining companies are able to generate at these commodity prices, we would not be surprised to see more M&A activity in the sector during 2011. As well as reinvesting cash in growth opportunities, it would be positive for sector valuations if this strong cashflow generation were reflected in returns of capital to shareholders. 17 January 2011 ENDS 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). 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.
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