Performance at Month End

Mercury World Mining Trust PLC
11 July 2000

MERCURY WORLD MINING TRUST plc
All information is at 30th June 2000 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
                            One      Three     One     Three      Five
                          Month     Months    Year     Years      Years
Net asset value             4.8%      1.0%    12.5%      0.3%     12.4%
Share price                 4.9%      1.3%     9.9%     -7.3%      3.0%
HSBC Global Mining
 Index (Capital Only)       4.1%      3.1%     1.6%    -12.7%    -12.5%

At month end
Net asset value  100.03p   including current year net revenue of  0.67p
Share price:      80.75p   Discount to NAV:                       19.3%
                           Net yield:                              1.5%
Total assets:   £203.6m
Gearing:          12.5%
Ordinary shares in issue:        182,199,852
(162,831 shares were repurchased and cancelled during the month).

Sector                 % Total     Country               % Total
Analysis                Assets     Analysis               Assets
Base Metals               30.1     South Africa             32.4
Diversified               24.3     Europe                   17.0
Gold                      19.2     Latin America            16.8
Platinum                  14.2     USA                      13.9
Silver/Diamonds            8.1     Australia                10.1
Industrial Minerals        4.5     Canada                    9.6
Net current liabilities   (0.4)    Africa                    0.6
                                   Net current liabilities  (0.4)
                         -----                             -----
                         100.0                             100.0
                         =====                             =====

Ten Largest Equity Investments
Company          % Investments     Country of Risk
Impala Platinum            7.9     South Africa
Alcoa                      7.3     USA
Minas Buenaventura         6.2     Peru
De Beers Centenary         5.1     South Africa
Cominco                    4.7     Canada
Gold Fields                4.4     South Africa
Anglo American Platinum    4.3     South Africa
Vale Rio Doce              4.2     Brazil
Billiton                   4.2     UK
Rio Tinto                  4.0     UK
                          ----
Total                     52.3
                          ====


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

Last month we noted that the mining share market was gripped by a dilemma
whether to pay more attention to the possibility of a hard landing in the US
or whether to focus instead on the powerful commodity market fundamentals.
In the end, June saw mining shares post a modest gain in sterling terms and
a rather larger one in US dollars (+5%).  One could argue therefore that the
bulls seem to be gaining the upper hand.  

One factor which has encouraged the bulls has been the rising level of
corporate activity.  Last month we reported that CVRD had bid for fellow
Brazilian iron ore company Samitri and we had replaced Samitri in the
portfolio with the Australian iron ore company Norths.  This proved to be
excellent timing as within a few days Rio Tinto had made a hostile cash bid
for Norths at A$3.80/share.   The Norths bid helped us to perform slightly
ahead of our benchmark.  

Another factor encouraging the bulls has been the improvement in metal prices.
Gold rose by over 5% in June and base metals were also firmer - led by
aluminium (up by 8%).  Aluminium was re-invigorated by news of several smelter
closures in the USA where the high price of electricity is making the
aluminium business uneconomic for high cost producers.  High energy costs were
also a contributory factor in a Phelps Dodge capacity cut (and profits
warning).  Phelps Dodge is a large holding in the fund (3.5%) and the
consequent weakness in the share price hurt us.  Capacity cuts are frequently
an indicator of excessively low metal  prices especially as the capacity cuts
are not related to any lack of demand. In fact demand is so strong that LME
inventories fell steadily during the month with some 155,000 tonnes shipped
out of warehouses (a 9% drop) - pointing to a significant shortfall of supply
over demand.  We are quite close to the point where consumers will begin to
fret about supply continuity.  The near term outlook for aluminium looked
sufficiently encouraging for the Trust to make its first direct investment
into physical aluminium metal.

The problem area in base metals in June turned out to be nickel.  The unions
at Inco, who had threatened a bitter strike, caved in - to the disgust of
investors who were 'long' nickel metal.  Our main nickel related investments -
Falconbridge, Norilsk and Outokumpu, retreated in sympathy and now look rather
inexpensive.

Sources: Mercury, HSBC Global Mining Index

Latest information is available by typing 'MAMINDEX' on Reuters, 'MAMI' on
Bloomberg or '8800' on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). Details about the Company are
also available on the Mercury website at www.mam.com/its.