The objective of BlackRock World Mining (BRWM) is ‘to maximise total real returns to shareholders through a world-wide portfolio of mining and metal securities’. Income has become a more important part of the total returns objective, and the board’s view is that a ‘significant’ dividend will serve as an effective discount control mechanism over time. BRWM uses all of the tools available to it as an investment trust, a clear differentiator to peers. Chief among these is the managers’ ability to make private royalty investments, which are now starting to contribute meaningfully to returns to shareholders. The managers also invest in fixed income which serves as a useful boost to returns, and to write covered call options on an opportunistic basis to generate extra income. The managers aim to use gearing so that, broadly speaking, investors maintain a fully invested exposure to equities, but achieve much greater diversification than would otherwise be the case. One of the central tenets of investing in BRWM for metals and mining exposure is that the managers can deploy the company’s assets to different commodities in a far more nimble and opportunistic way than the large listed diversified miners. Illustrating this, one of the key themes in the portfolio currently is exposure to gold and precious metals. The managers have been adding to positions over the last year, such that gold now makes up 26.6% of the portfolio, an increase from 13% a year ago. A long-running theme in the portfolio is that the wider market is underestimating the mining sector’s resolve to maintain capital discipline, to deliver dividends and buybacks to shareholders, and to pursue only value-accretive growth opportunities. As evidenced by the trust’s strong income flow so far this year, the managers’ view has been proved correct, and prodigious cash flows are being used to reward shareholders in the form of special dividends. The trust’s historic dividend yield is 5.2%. Over the six months to 30 June 2019, BRWM’s net revenue earnings (including specials) amounted to 11.43p per share, an increase of 23% over the same period last year. The board has committed to pay out substantially all of the trust’s income in dividends, which means that the entire increase in income is likely to flow through to dividends. The trust’s discount has remained resolutely wide. The board has been buying shares back, most recently on 26 September 2019 at a discount of 15.2%.