Company Press Release

NEW YORK, (September 3, 2008) – New York-based asset manager Van Eck Global today launched the Market Vectors-RVE Hard Assets Producers exchange-traded fund (HAP) on the American Stock Exchange®—the first and only global hard assets ETF. HAP seeks to replicate, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of The Rogers™-Van Eck Hard Assets Producers Index (RVEI), which many view as the definitive global benchmark for commodity equities. Jim Rogers, the well-known international investor and a co-founder of the Quantum Fund, is chairman of the RVE Index Committee, and was actively involved in the construction of the index in partnership with S-Network Global Indexes, LLC.

HAP provides “one-stop shopping” for the global hard assets industry because its underlying index is comprehensive in construction, covering 321 companies in 40 countries and 6 sectors at end-August. The index includes the world’s largest and most prominent publicly traded companies that are engaged in the production and distribution of hard assets and related products and services, and captures more than 90% of the industry’s global stock market capitalization. The sectors covered include energy, agriculture, base metals, precious metals, forest products and water and renewable energy (solar and wind). RVEI is the first commodities equities index to include water and renewable energy—increasingly important natural resources—and utilizes consumption-based weights that afford balanced exposure among the 6 sectors. The index is pure-play in its focus, including only those companies that derive at least 50% of their revenues from the applicable commodity sector. The sole exception is water, where constituents must generate at least 25% of their revenues from that industry.

“The RogersTM-Van Eck Hard Assets Producers Index is designed to provide a reliable, comprehensive benchmark for measuring the performance of the global hard assets industry, which is central to the world economy since it accounts for approximately 14% of global GDP,” said Rogers. “The Market Vectors-RVE Hard Assets Producers ETF is the first to provide comprehensive exposure to the dynamics of the global commodities business in a single fund,” said Jan van Eck, Principal at Van Eck Global. “We think investors will find it attractive as a way to participate in this huge and growing segment of the market.” Founded in 1955, Van Eck Global was among the first U.S. money managers helping investors achieve greater diversification through global investing. The company managed $11.8 billion in assets for individuals, insurers and institutional investors as of July 31, 2008. HAP is the sixteenth ETF introduced under Van Eck’s Market Vectors brand, which includes hard assets, international, specialty and municipal bond ETFs. Market Vectors ETFs had a total of $6.0 billion in assets under management as of July 31, 2008.