Performance at Month End

Merrill Lynch World Mining Tst PLC
9 February 2001


MERRILL LYNCH WORLD MINING TRUST plc
All information is at 31 January 2001 and unaudited
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
                          One     Three     One     Three     Five
                        Month    Months    Year     Years     Years
Net asset value           5.0%     13.2%    4.9%     61.4%      5.5%
Share price               0.8%     10.1%   -0.5%     56.3%     -2.3%
HSBC Global Mining
 Index (Capital Only)     5.4%     11.4%    5.7%     29.0%    -18.7%

At month end
Net asset value 114.78p
Share price:     92.25p    Discount to NAV:                    19.6%
                           Net yield:                           1.3%
Total assets:   £203.8m
Gearing:           5.0%  
Ordinary shares in issue:      169,199,852
(900,000 shares were repurchased during the month).

Sector                 % Total   Country               % Total
Analysis                Assets   Analysis               Assets
Diversified               29.2   South Africa             38.1
Base Metals               22.1   Canada                   17.8
Platinum                  17.5   Europe                   16.2
Gold                      17.1   Latin America            14.0
Silver/Diamonds           11.2   Australia                11.7
Industrial Minerals        3.0   USA                       2.0
Net current liabilities   (0.1)  Africa                    0.3
                                 Net current liabilities  (0.1)
                         -----                           -----
                         100.0                           100.0
                         =====                           =====

Ten Largest Equity Investments
Company          % Investments     Country of Risk 
Impala Platinum            9.7     South Africa
Anglo Platinum             6.6     South Africa
De Beers Centenary         6.2     South Africa
Gold Fields                6.1     South Africa
Minas Buenaventura         5.5     Peru
Cominco                    5.3     Canada
Vale Rio Doce              5.2     Brazil
Billiton                   4.9     UK
Pechiney                   4.6     France
Alcan Aluminium            4.3     Canada
                          ----
Total                     58.4
                          ====

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

After a great finish to the year in December, mining equities started January
in a rather 'hung over' state.  Worries over the global economy - provoked by
Greenspan's surprise interest rate cut - pushed mining shares down and the
Trust's NAV and share price dipped down to 104p and 88p/share respectively. 

Fears of metal market supply surpluses however quickly began to look overdone.
The energy shortage in Western USA is leading to severe curtailments of
production capacity with some 5% of global aluminium output now closed.
During January, Phelps Dodge announced a possible curtailment amounting to
some 2% of global capacity.  Cominco announced that it was cutting Trail's
zinc capacity further in order to take advantage of high electricity rates and
sell power to the US.  All of these factors bode well for metals supply/demand
in the second half of the year and point to deficits rather than surpluses. 
In the near term though the problems in the US have forced us to adjust the
portfolio a little.  We told you last year that we had eliminated exposure to
the US aluminium industry by selling Alcoa.  This month we cut exposure to
Phelps Dodge and switched the money into stocks such as Antofagasta - which
can benefit from higher prices for copper in the second half but which are not
exposed to the high US power rates.  

The bad start to the year was compounded by a profits warning from the US iron
ore company Cleveland Cliffs.  It is quite amazing that while a US producer
struggles, the Australian and Brazilian iron ore producers Rio, BHP and CVRD
are thriving.  It illustrates the benefits of having mines located in weak
currency zones.  Our US exposure in the portfolio is now rather low.

Although January started weak, it finished on a high note.  The platinum
stocks began moving higher again, spurred on by the prospect of some
mouth-watering earnings results due in February.  The gold price also perked
up, helping our positions in this subsector.  In South Africa, strong rumours
emerged of an imminent restructuring of the Anglo American De Beers
relationship - propelling the shares higher.  These rumours have subsequently
been confirmed - vindicating our decision to hold our exposure to Anglo
American through De Beers.


Sources: Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, HSBC Global Mining Index

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).