BlackRock World Mining Trust offloads BHP royalty contract

(Sharecast News) - Mining investor BlackRock World Mining Trust has announced a sale of its royalty contract with BHP Brazil for $70m. The company, which primarily holds equity stakes in mining companies worldwide, said it has sold the royalty to Gold Royalty Corp for a 105% premium to its current holding value $34.1m.

BWMT first acquired the royalty contract back in 2014 for $12m, having received $38.5m through to the end of June 2025.

The gross proceeds of the sale, royalty income and unpaid royalty revenues owed on production this year total around $113m - equal to nine times the original investment.

The deal will increase the trust's net asset value by 1.8%.

"The sale is part of usual portfolio management in accordance with the company's published investment policy of investing principally in quoted securities combined with up to 20% of gross assets in unquoted investments. The manager is currently engaged in a number of processes that could result in the deployment of capital into new unquoted investments," BWMT said in a statement.

BWMT's portfolio is diversified across the globe, though Latin America is its second-largest region, accounting for 9.9% of all investments.

Shares were up 1.0% at 742.33p in early deals on Monday.