Britain's FTSE dragged lower by miners and Unilever

* FTSE 100 down 1.4 pct

* Miners extend falls on yuan devaluation

* Unilever (NYSE: UL - news) drops 3.5 pct

By Liisa Tuhkanen

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index was dragged lower on Wednesday by Unilever, hit after a broker downgrade, and by mining companies suffering from a slump in metal prices due to China's devaluation of the yuan.

China, the world's second-largest economy and the biggest consumer of metals, devalued its currency on Tuesday after a run of poor economic data, raising the costs of imports.

London nickel, copper and aluminium all dropped to six-year lows on Wednesday as fears intensified that China's weaker yuan would corrode demand.

The UK mining sector was down 2.9 percent in early deals after shedding 4.4 pct in the previous session.

Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) declined the most, dropping 5.2 percent.

Blue (OTC BB: BUES - news) -chip peers Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO.L - news) , BHP, Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) and Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) all fell around 3 percent, with mid caps Vedanta, Lonmin (LSE: LMI.L - news) and Petra down between 2.9 and 5.4 percent.

"It takes a brave soul and deep pockets to buy these mining stocks when they're this heavily down," said Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC Markets.

The FTSE 100 was down 1.4 percent by 0827 GMT, slightly outperforming other European equities.

Consumer goods company Unilever shed 3.5 percent after it was cut to "sell" from "neutral" by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) , which said the downgrade was spurred by the rise of e-commerce and slowdown in emerging markets.

"We see the company as negatively positioned with respect to the changes in the retail environment as the e-commerce channel grows," Goldman Sachs said in a note.

"Furthermore, c. 60 percent of Unilever's sales come from (emerging markets), for which we expect structurally lower growth versus prior years and more competition in mass-market categories from local companies."

On the the upside, Randgold added 1.3 percent, the only riser on the blue-chip FTSE 100 index, as the devaluation of the yuan supported gold prices.

(Additional reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)