Performance at month end

Merrill Lynch World Mining Tst PLC
10 August 2001


MONTHLY PERFORMANCE

MERRILL LYNCH WORLD MINING TRUST plc

All information is at 31 July 2001 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

                                         One  Three    One     Three      Five
                                       month months   year     years     years

Net asset value                        -10.0%  -9.4%  16.4%     88.5%     12.8%

Share price                             -9.0%  -7.5%  17.1%     77.2%      9.8%

HSBC Global Mining Index(Capital Only)  -7.8%  -8.9%  14.7%     52.0%     -6.4%


Sources: Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, HSBC Global Mining Index

At month end

Net asset value                     115.92p

Share price                         96.25p

Discount to NAV                     17.0%

Net yield                           1.4%

Total assets                        £194.4m

Gearing                             2.0%

Ordinary shares in issue            168,200,000

(no shares were repurchased and cancelled during the month).

Sector                     % Total           Country                    % Total
                            Assets                                       Assets
Analysis                                     Analysis

Diversified                   37.3           South Africa                  30.2
Gold                          20.9           Europe                        22.8
Base Metals                   19.8           Canada                        17.7
Platinum                      16.3           Latin America                 14.6
Industrial Minerals            5.5           Australia                     10.0
Silver/Diamonds                3.3           USA                            7.8
Gold Bullion                   0.5           Gold Bullion                   0.5
Net current                  (3.6)           Net current                  (3.6)
liabilities                  -----           liabilities                  -----
                             100.0                                        100.0
                             -----                                        -----

Ten Largest Equity Investments

Company                     % Investments       Country of Risk

BHP Billiton                          9.0       Global
Impala Platinum                       8.3       South Africa
Teck Cominco                          7.6       Canada
Pechiney                              6.2       France
Minas Buenaventura                    6.2       Peru
Gold Fields                           5.8       South Africa
Anglo Platinum                        5.1       South Africa
Alcan Aluminium                       4.6       Canada
Vale Rio Doce                         4.4       Brazil
Rio Tinto                             4.1       Global
                                     ----
                                     61.3
                                     ----


Commenting on the markets, Evy Hambro, representing the Investment Manager
noted:

July was a tough month for the Trust. As we saw in June mining shares, having
been strong relative to metal prices year to date, gave up some of the
relative performance. This pattern continued in July. The period started well
with mining shares recovering from the setback in June. However, increased
uncertainty on the outlook for the global economy triggered further selling of
physical metals and this in turn caused mining equities to move lower. This as
a whole did not effect the Trust, given the low level of gearing and the
overall less aggressive structure of the portfolio.

However, the Trust was materially effected by the continued decline in
platinum group metal (PGM) prices with platinum and palladium declining 15%
and 24% respectively over the month. The falls in the underlying commodities
caused the Trust's large holdings in Impala and Anglo Platinum to decline in
value by 15% and 27% respectively. However, we believe the selling to be
overdone especially in light of evidence that the fall in PGM prices was a
result of speculative selling rather than reduced demand and the release of
strong forecast results for our holdings for the first half of the year in
August.

Consolidation continued during July, with two of the Trust's medium size
holdings merging to form a new company. The merger of Teck and Cominco
happened towards the end of the period and it has resulted in the combined
entity becoming one of the largest holdings at 7.6% of the portfolio.

Although the sector is inexpensive in comparison with most others, we do feel
that sentiment towards a cyclical sector such as mining could deteriorate if
the economic recovery is delayed. As a result we continue to pursue a more
cautious than usual strategy. We are focused on the fact that we are now over
half way through the Northern Hemisphere summer which has traditionally been a
quiet period for metal demand. As we enter the third quarter metal demand is
forecast to pick up and this will reveal the true state of the global economy.

Latest information is available by typing www.mlim.co.uk/its on the internet,
'MLIMINDEX' on Reuters, 'MLIM' on Bloomberg or '8800' on Topic 3 (ICV
terminal).

9 August 2001

ENDS