Q:  How would you describe your investment philosophy?

A: Van Eck is a fifty-year old investment management firm that specializes in helping investors achieve greater global diversification. We have developed ETFs to provide investors with low-cost, innovative, and focused vehicles to gain exposure to specific segments of the global market.

We launch products that are either “first and only” for their target markets, or have qualities that offer strong differentiation from the existing products. Our ETF ideas look to provide targeted exposure to those market segments related to our underlying philosophy of global growth, and in market segments where the ETF structure will thrive and meet investor needs. The products are designed with an eye for how they will fit within investors’ portfolios and the important role they will play within that portfolio.

Q:  Would you describe the products that you manage?

A: Van Eck started with international funds in 1955, and then created the first gold mutual fund in the U.S. Currently, Van Eck’s largest mutual fund is the Van Eck Global Hard Assets fund, which also was one of the first of its kind. Over time we have also launched insurance trust funds and products for institutional investors.

Our background in hard assets investments provided Van Eck with the starting point for our first exchange traded fund, the Market Vectors-Gold Miners ETF, which was launched in May 2006.

Since then, we have launched four more Market Vectors ETFs - Steel, Russia, Environmental Services, and Global Alternative Energy. We are also launching in August the Market Vectors-Nuclear Energy ETF, the world’s first nuclear energy ETF, on the back of renewed interest in nuclear power. The Nuclear Energy fund is designed to replicate the most important nuclear energy companies worldwide.

The Steel ETF focuses on the companies in the steel industry, which are currently enjoying an amazing run. The Russian fund focuses on 30 Russian highly liquid companies, including five American Depository Receipts that trade in New York, 19 Global Depository Receipts traded in London, and six local Russian stocks that trade in Moscow.

Q:  Designing your products seems to resemble picking stocks or sectors of the market. Would you explain that process?

A: Our strategy is to carefully and methodically pick and choose our spots, focusing on what the market wants or needs. We try to identify segments of the market or the global economy that are under covered, or not well represented on the ETF marketplace. When the Gold Miners ETF came out in 2006, it was first gold mining ETF. The same was true with the Steel ETF, the Environmental Services ETF, and the Russia ETF. The only fund that already had some competition when it came out was the Global Alternative Energy ETF, but that fund was differentiated in the way the index was built to provide international exposure and a pure representation of the sector.

Once we identify the right segment of the global economy, we then work with index providers to create an index that will best offer comprehensive and pure exposure within that segment of the market. Van Eck is very sensitive to the need to eliminate noise and portfolio overlap when we design ETFs.

Van Eck’s ETFs don’t contain companies that stray too far outside of their target sector. For example, GE is a big player in the alternative energy area, but as it’s a huge conglomerate whose businesses range far beyond alternative energy, GE is not included in our alternative energy ETF.

Our Environmental Services ETF is an example a compelling pathway to play global growth. As a result of the world’s increasing population and strengthening economies, there is a corresponding rise in global waste generation. Companies in environmental services are well positioned to capitalize on the world becoming more and more aware of the dangers related to pollution. These companies have high revenue streams and great prospects. The technologies within environmental services that are doing well, include not only the traditional waste disposal companies, but also waste-to-energy companies. Additionally, the world is facing new waste management issues, such as how to dispose of millions of old computers. Our Environmental Services ETF includes companies that are dealing with these new issues.

Q:  Could you shed some light on the size of the assets under management?

A: As of the end of June 2007 the total assets the Gold Miners ETF, which is our most successful fund, was about $625 million. The Steel ETF had almost $130 million; the Environmental Services ETF had $26 million; the Russia ETF had about $90 million; and the Global Alternative Energy ETF had $43 million. Collectively, the amount invested in the funds is approximately $913 million but two of the funds are very new. We are certainly not aiming to just throw many products out in the market. We’re trying to be strategic.

Q:  Would you explain in more detail your weighting methodology?

A: We try to identify indexes that can really grow with the particular industries and provide methodologies that give investors the targeted exposure.

Most of the Indexes which our ETFs are designed to track have weighting methodologies that are based on modified market cap. Essentially, the companies are ranked by market capitalization and then certain rules are applied on top of that. For instance, in the Steel and Gold Miners ETFs, the weightings are designed to avoid domination by some of the bigger names and to get contribution from the smaller names as well.

The Environmental Services ETF is based on the Amex Environmental Services Index, which is a modified equal-dollar weighted index. The top four components of that fund are weighted at 10% each, and the bottom five are weighted at 2% each. The remaining companies constitute the other 50%. The methodology enables each company, especially the ones at the bottom, to contribute to the performance of the fund.

The Russian economy is dominated by energy and commodity businesses. The top five holdings in the Russia ETF are capped at 8% each, which is important because on a straight market cap, investors would own just a few big oil companies. The Deutsche Boerse did a great job designing the index to grow with the Russian economy as it moves away from sole reliance on commodities and into consumer sectors such as banks and telecom. The Index is comprised of about 40% energy, which is fairly low compared to other Russian indices.