By Michael Kokalari CFA, chief economist, and Thai Thi Viet Trinh, senior economist.

Avino Silver & Gold Mines is an established Mexican silver producer, which is planning to grow from 2.5Moz per year to 8–10Moz per year in the next five years. This video includes operational footage and covers how bringing on the company’s La Preciosa deposit is a key part of this growth strategy.

Pan American Silver (PAAS) is one of the largest global primary silver producers and a sizeable gold miner with operations in North, Central and South America since 1994. Its portfolio includes 10 producing operations, the currently suspended top tier Escobal silver mine and a number of large-scale advanced exploration/development projects.

Below we highlight five key reasons why PAAS represents an exciting investment case:

1. Exceptional exposure to silver through existing operations and growth projects.
2. Well-timed and value-accretive M&A strategy.
3. Juanicipio acquisition has a strong rational and offers significant upside.
4. Record financial performance driven by commodity prices and M&A.
5. Strong earnings momentum supports shareholder returns.

For more information on PAAS, please see our website.

What is AI slop and why should investors care?

BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust (BRLA) seeks long-term capital growth and an attractive total return, primarily through investing in quoted Latin American securities. The benchmark is the MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America Index.

There are four key reasons why BRLA represents a compelling investment case:

1. The trust focuses on capital growth and an attractive total return from Latin American stocks.
2. Latin America has above-average growth prospects and is attractively valued.
3. Stocks are primarily selected on a bottom-up basis, and the managers are not afraid to invest ‘away from the crowd’.
4. BRLA has a formalised NAV-based dividend policy and a discount control mechanism.

For more information on BRLA, please see our website.

In this interview, Pan American Silver president and CEO Michael Steinmann discusses the company’s strategic focus on acquiring and developing high-quality, long-life assets to complement its status as the world’s second-largest primary silver producer. He details the company’s growth options, including the optimisation of the Jacobina mine in Brazil and the newly announced staged development approach at the world-class La Colorada Skarn deposit in Mexico. He also covers the impact of the recent acquisition of a 44% stake in the Juanicipio mine, noting it has significantly lowered silver costs while generating strong cash flows that support increasing shareholder returns through dividends and share buybacks.

Pan American Silver is one of the largest global primary silver producers and a sizeable gold miner, with operations in North, Central and South America since 1994. It owns 11 producing operations, the currently suspended top-tier Escobal silver mine and a number of large-scale advanced exploration and development projects.

BlackRock American Income Trust’s (BRAI’s) proposed objective is to provide long-term capital growth, while paying an attractive level of income. Performance is measured against a US 1000 value index (the reference index).

There are four key reasons why BRAI represents a compelling investment case:

1. The trust had a unique change in strategy in April 2025.
2. Blackrock’s systematic investing offers an interesting alternative to traditional strategies.
3. BlackRock has a well-resourced and highly experienced SAE team.
4. Other enhancements were made to BRAI, including an enhanced dividend, a fee reduction and opportunities for shareholders to exit at close to NAV.

For more information on BRAI, please see our website.

In this episode, our director of content, investment trusts Milosz Papst provides an update on BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust. After giving a quick refresher about the company, he discusses the Latin American investment backdrop, where valuations look very attractive. He then highlights the importance of upcoming election cycles, before delving into the managers’ views about the prospects for the region. Discussion then turns to the trust, starting with the stock selection process, where favoured companies tend to be high-quality businesses at reasonable valuations, which may be overlooked by other investors. He then provides information about the portfolio, where the managers are happy to invest in some of the smaller and non-index countries, although it is important to understand that a large part of the portfolio is likely to be made up of Brazilian and Mexican stocks as these two countries make up around 90% of the MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America Index, which is the trust’s benchmark. He highlights a few of the largest portfolio holdings before discussing performance, which has been positive this year in both absolute and relative terms. To wrap up the podcast, he focuses on the dividend policy, where income is an important element of the trust’s total return objective, and highlights the discount control mechanism, which includes a tender offer based on the trust’s performance and average discount over a four-year period ending 31 December 2025.

Listen on your preferred podcast player below:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Zencastr

About Uncovering Trusts: Uncovering Trusts is a podcast run by Edison analysts, which is released every two weeks. Subscribe to hear analyst interviews on how investment trusts maximise returns while managing risks for investors.

Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) has secured its first military aircraft reservation, with an undisclosed defence contractor reserving three Airlander 10 aircraft. This marks the first breakthrough into HAV’s $3.7bn military pipeline, adding to existing civil reservations worth $2bn. Defence technology is rapidly evolving and the Airlander 10 presents operators with options for persistent surveillance (five-day endurance), elevated sensing (three-tonne payload) and drone warfare capabilities. With first deliveries targeted for 2029, military reservations should strengthen HAV’s position for raising the c £310m required for production and the type certification programme.

Edison’s investment companies team recently published a review of BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust (ticker: BRLA). Year-on-year performance is much improved in 2025 in both absolute and relative terms. In the first six months of FY25, the trust delivered NAV and share price total returns above 40%, which was well ahead of the market. Managers Sam Vecht and Gordon Fraser seek quality growth companies trading on reasonable valuations across the whole continent. They believe that upcoming presidential elections in Latin America could lead to a more stable political environment, which could refocus the attention of global investors, on a region with above-average growth prospects and modest valuations. Along with capital growth potential, the trust offers an attractive dividend yield based on 1.25% of quarter-end NAV.