Performance at month end

Merrill Lynch World Mining Tst PLC
9 November 2001


MERRILL LYNCH WORLD MINING TRUST plc

All information is at 31 October 2001 and unaudited

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

                                                  One  Three   One Three   Five
                                                month months  year years  years
Net asset value                                  5.1%  -6.1%  7.3% 76.3%  10.9%
Share price                                      5.1%  -8.8%  6.2% 58.8%   2.5%
HSBC Global Mining Index(capital only)           4.4%  -9.6%  1.9% 35.9% -12.7%
MSCI World Metals & Mining Index (capital only)  5.5% -11.2% -1.1% 13.0% -27.7%

Sources: Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, HSBC Global Mining Index,
Datastream
At month end
Net asset value                     108.90p
Share price                         87.75p
Discount to NAV                     19.4%
Net yield                           1.5%
Total assets                        £177.2m
Gearing                             0.0%
Ordinary shares in issue            167,450,000

(750,000 shares were repurchased and cancelled during the month).

Sector                       % Total       Country                      % Total
                              Assets                                     Assets
Analysis                                   Analysis
Diversified                    29.5        South Africa                   29.7
Gold                           26.2        Europe                         20.1
Base Metals                    18.6        Latin America                  15.4
Platinum                       13.3        Canada                         11.8
Industrial Minerals             6.7        Australia                      10.6
Silver/Diamonds                 2.5        USA                             9.2
Base Metal Futures              4.8        Base Metal Futures              4.8
Cash/cash equivalents           3.4        Cash/cash equivalents           3.4
Net current                    (5.0)       Net current                    (5.0)
liabilities                   ------       liabilities                   ------
                              100.0                                      100.0
                              ------                                     ------

Ten Largest Equity Investments
Company                     % Investments     Country of Risk
BHP Billiton                          8.3     Global
Minas Buenaventura                    8.3     Peru
Impala Platinum                       7.4     South Africa
Gold Fields                           7.3     South Africa
Pechiney                              6.5     France
Anglo Platinum                        5.1     South Africa
Harmony                               4.7     South Africa
CVRD                                  4.5     Brazil
Alcan Aluminium                       4.3     Canada
WMC                                   4.3     Global
                                     ----
Total                                60.7
                                     ----


Commenting on the markets, Graham Birch, representing the Investment Manager
noted:

Mining shares performed remarkably well during October, benefiting from a
rally in equity markets and recovering from an oversold position in September.
Some of the diversified general mining companies such as Anglo American
performed especially well and we took advantage of the situation to further
reduce some of the portfolio positions. Overall, the Trust's portfolio
performed in-line with the sector benchmark.

We are a little suspicious about the sustainability of the rally and have not
rushed to re-establish gearing. Economic conditions remain rather depressed
and metals prices are showing few signs of life at the moment. This means that
earnings estimates in the mining sector may have to be adjusted downwards
again for 2002 - with negative implications for sentiment. There are however a
few glimmers of light on the horizon. October saw a number of announcements
from companies cutting mining capacity - including Phelps Dodge, Grupo Mexico,
Outokumpu and Breakwater. While the headlines about capacity closure make grim
reading they do sew the seeds of eventual restoration of market balance and
recovery.

The South African stocks in the portfolio (mainly gold and platinum equities)
enjoyed the benefit of further rand weakness. As dollar earners, South African
mining companies get a big boost out of the depreciating currency and we
expect to see earnings upgrades over the next few weeks.

Two new holdings were added to the portfolio in October - Portman Mining and
Lihir Gold.


Outlook

We are positioned quite conservatively at the moment. We don't anticipate
becoming more aggressive until the New Year.




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 November 2001