Performance at Month End

Merrill Lynch World Mining Tst PLC
14 July 2003


 MERRILL LYNCH WORLD MINING TRUST plc

 All information is at 30 June 2003 and unaudited.

 Performance at month end with net income reinvested

                                                                       One       Three        One      Three        Five
                                                                     month      months       year      years       years
Net asset value                                                       0.7%        9.0%      -1.2%      53.8%      146.2%
Share price                                                           2.5%        4.4%      -3.1%      64.0%      144.9%
HSBC Global Mining Index (capital only)                               1.6%        9.1%      -8.8%      12.4%       49.8%

 Sources: Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, HSBC Global Mining Index,
Datastream
At month end
Net asset value:                      146.72p*              Discount to NAV:                                       14.6%
Share price:                          125.25p               Net historic yield:                                     1.7%
Total assets:                         £239.8m
Gearing:                              1.3%                  Effective gearing:                                      2.7%
Ordinary shares in issue:             162,800,000

* includes current year net revenue of 1.33p




Sector Analysis                             % Total          Country Analysis                          % Total Assets
                                             Assets
Diversified                                    31.0          Europe                                              24.9
Gold                                           26.8          South Africa                                        23.2
Base Metals                                    21.2          Canada                                              18.5
Platinum                                        8.7          Latin America                                       14.6
Silver/Diamonds                                 6.5          Australasia                                         14.1
Industrial Minerals                             4.7          China                                                2.5
Gold Bullion                                    2.5          USA                                                  1.5
Net current liabilities                         (1.4)        SE Asia                                              1.9
                                                             Africa                                               0.2
                                                             Net current liabilities                               (1.4)
                                              100.0                                                             100.0


Ten Largest Equity Investments
Company                                 % of Investments          Country of Risk
Gold Fields                                          7.2          South Africa
Minas Buenaventura                                   7.0          Peru
BHP Billiton                                         6.6          Global
Impala Platinum                                      5.9          South Africa
Aber Diamond                                         5.1          Canada
Harmony Gold Mining                                  5.0          South Africa
CVRD                                                 4.8          Brazil
Rio Tinto                                            4.7          Global
Falconbridge                                         4.2          Canada
Inco                                                 3.7          Canada
Total                                               54.2


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


Performance

June is the 'halfway stage' in the year and a good point to reflect on the
character of the vintage.  During the first half of 2003, the mining sector was
divided into those metals that performed and those that didn't but in all cases
the sector was more volatile than usual. The precious metals enjoyed the most
spectacular moves with gold racing to a 6 year high of U$381oz ahead of the Iraq
war before rapidly giving up these gains. Platinum also reached multi-year
highs.  In the base metals, nickel was the best performer up 18% (thanks to
strike action at Inco) followed by copper up a mere 7%. These moves were
reflected in the performance of the equities with copper and nickel producers
doing reasonably well over the period.

Corporate activity also picked up in the period with Xstrata making a hostile
bid for MIM in Australia and a number of high profile gold transactions being
announced, notably one involving Ashanti. Early in July the Trust benefited from
Alcan's hostile bid for Pechiney (which propelled this stock into the 
'top ten').

Uncertainty on the South African mining legislation continues to prevail and
this was increased with the announcement of the new royalty legislation during
May.  When these factors are added to the strength of currencies in producing
countries versus the US dollar it is no surprise that the sector did not manage
to deliver much positive performance in June. Overall, the Trust was up slightly
- but trailing behind the HSBC Global Mining Index.

Portfolio Activity

Over the past six months, the Trust has proactively positioned itself towards
the more upstream type of base metal producers like Alumina and Chalco. At the
same time, the Trust selectively added to some pure copper and nickel positions
such as Antofagasta, Amerigo Resources and Falconbridge. Finally, holdings in
UK diversified miners and South African gold producers were trimmed.

Derivatives

The Trust has written put and call options covering BHP Billiton stock. If
exercised these would lead to the holding in this company either falling to 6.0%
of the portfolio or rising to 7.8%.

Strategy/Outlook

Going forward, we expect further price strength in nickel and copper as supply
side issues impact the market equilibrium positively. The Trust remains also
strategically positioned to benefit from its upstream base metal exposure. In
addition to that, with no clear signs of any pick up in global economic
activity, we expect the US dollar weakness to persist, which bodes well for the
bullion price. Combined with expected Rand devaluation over the medium term, the
South African shares should recover some of the ground lost in the first quarter
of 2003.

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).


14 July 2003




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