Performance at month end

Merrill Lynch World Mining Tst PLC
11 September 2002


 MONTHLY PERFORMANCE

 MERRILL LYNCH WORLD MINING TRUST plc

 All information is at 30 August 2002 and unaudited.

 Performance at month end with net income reinvested

                                                                       One      Three        One      Three       Five
                                                                     month     months       year      years      years

Net asset value                                                       7.0%     -23.1%      16.8%      47.2%      44.4%

Share price                                                           5.1%     -26.5%      20.8%      44.3%      44.1%

HSBC Global Mining Index (capital only)                               3.7%     -23.6%      -5.4%       3.7%      -3.4%

MSCI World Metals & Mining Index (capital only)                       0.1%     -22.2%     -11.7%     -15.2%     -25.5%

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

Net asset value:                      133.75p            Discount to NAV:                                    15.3%

Share price:                          113.25p            Net historic yield:                                  2.8%

Total assets:                         £220.9m

Gearing:                              2.6%               Effective gearing:                                   4.4%

Ordinary shares in issue:             162,945,461


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

After a dismal July, August turned out to be something of a recovery month, with
the portfolio up by 7% on a total return basis, outperforming the HSBC Global
Mining Index (capital only) by 3.3%. Given that base metals prices were
lacklustre, this strength can be attributed mainly to a rally in gold and
platinum with strong performance evident in this part of the portfolio (the FT
Gold Mines Index rose by 15.8% in August).

One of the reasons for the sharp retreat of mining shares in July was the debate
in the markets about the adverse impact of the new Minerals bill, and its
associated Charter, in South Africa. August saw some welcome relief from this
after the South African Government, together with industry representatives,
issued statements aimed at allaying capital market concerns. The situation
remains nervous however, and is a 'text-book' example of how quickly a good
reputation can be lost in comparison with the time taken for one to be acquired.

Our stance towards South Africa is to remain cautious. Over the next two months
we will be meeting with senior executives of most of the South African companies
in which we have sizeable investments. We also intend to meet with officials
from the Ministry of Mines. It is possible that this could lead to some changes
in the portfolio and for the moment therefore we do not intend to publish
updates on the exact size of our larger investments. The portfolio position as
at the end of June is detailed in the Company's interim report


Derivatives

At the end of August, the 'puts' we have written in the portfolio would, if
exercised, have the following effects: increase the portfolio's gold bullion
holding from 1% of NAV to 2% of NAV; increase the holding in MIM from 1.4% to
2.2%; increase the holding in WMC from 3.1% to 3.7%; and increase the holding in
Rio Tinto from 3.5% to 4.5% of NAV. The portfolio would then be about 7.5%
geared.


Outlook

There seems little doubt that market conditions are set to remain volatile for
the moment. While this may be rather scary for investors, we are looking forward
to taking advantage of some of these opportunities as they arise.

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).

11 September 2002


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