Performance at Month End

Merrill Lynch World Mining Tst PLC
10 January 2003


MONTHLY PERFORMANCE

MERRILL LYNCH WORLD MINING TRUST plc

All information is at 31 December 2002 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

                                                                       One      Three        One      Three       Five
                                                                     month     months       year      years      years
Net asset value                                                       7.2%      17.7%      27.5%      34.2%     119.6%
Share price                                                          11.2%      19.8%      40.1%      37.9%     145.9%
HSBC Global Mining Index (capital only)                               1.2%      12.7%      -3.6%      -6.8%      33.4%
MSCI World Metals & Mining Index (capital only)                      -3.7%      10.5%     -13.5%     -26.0%      -0.7%

Sources: Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, HSBC Global Mining Index, Datastream

At month end

Net asset value:                      151.75p               Discount to NAV:                                       13.2%
Share price:                          131.75p               Net historic yield:                                     2.4%
Total assets:                         £243.0m
Gearing:                              Nil                   Effective gearing:                                       Nil
Ordinary shares in issue:             162,800,000

Sector Analysis                        % Total Assets         Country Analysis                           % Total Assets

Gold                                             30.2         South Africa                                         32.1
Diversified                                      28.7         Europe                                               21.2
Base Metals                                      15.8         Latin America                                        13.8
Platinum                                         11.1         Australasia                                          13.2
Industrial Minerals                               6.6         Canada                                               12.3
Silver/Diamonds                                   6.3         USA                                                   4.9
Gold Bullion                                      0.9         China                                                 1.2
Cash                                              2.7         Gold Bullion                                          0.9
Net current liabilities                         (2.3)         Cash                                                  2.7
                                                              Net current liabilities                             (2.3)
                                                100.0                                                             100.0


Ten Largest Equity Investments

Company                                                      % Investments          Country of Risk

Gold Fields                                                            9.6          South Africa
Impala Platinum                                                        8.3          South Africa
Harmony Gold Mining                                                    7.0          South Africa
Minas Buenaventura                                                     6.6          Peru
BHP Billiton                                                           6.0          Global
Rio Tinto                                                              5.1          Global
CVRD                                                                   4.9          Brazil
Aber Diamond                                                           4.8          Canada
Inco                                                                   3.1          Canada
Pechiney                                                               3.1          France
                                                                      58.5


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

Performance

December was a good month for the Trust with the NAV rising by 7.2% in
comparison with a rise of 1.2% in the HSBC Global Mining Index.  This was a
strong finish to a strong year, with the Trust up by 27.5% since 31 December
2001.  Very few investment trusts or unit trusts were able to better this
return.

A significant portion of the outperformance by the portfolio can be attributed
to our overweight position in gold equities.  Gold has been buoyant, and is
currently trading above US$350/oz, the highest level since 1997.

Portfolio Changes

December saw the successful initial public offering (IPO) of Highland Gold, a
company with interests in the Russian gold mining industry.  The Trust had
invested in Highland Gold while it was still an unquoted company and the IPO
price represented a significant boost for the overall portfolio valuation in
December.

Derivatives

The Trust has written short dated calls over a portion of its Rio Tinto holding
and its entire gold bullion holding.  The Trust has written short dated puts in
Anglo American Corporation and MIM.   If exercised, the holding in Rio Tinto
would drop to about 4.1% of NAV.  The holdings in Anglo and MIM would increase
to about 2.2% and 3.0% of NAV respectively.

Outlook

2003 is likely to be another year of socio-economic turmoil for the world.  This
could favour a continuation of our overweight stance towards gold shares.  At
some point during the year, investors will again start to believe in imminent
economic recovery and this should help the performance of the portfolio's base
metals and diversified mining company holdings.

We believe that mining equities are poised for another year of outperformance
against the broader equity markets.


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).


10 January 2003


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange