Mesabi Trust Press Release.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 16, 2004

The Trustees of the Mesabi Trust (NYSE: MSB) declared a distribution of $0.05 per Unit of Beneficial Interest of Mesabi Trust payable on May 20, 2004 to Mesabi Trust unitholders of record at the close of business on April

30, 2004. This compares to no distribution for the same period last year. Normally, only a minimum advance royalty is received by Mesabi Trust for the first calendar quarter of each year as little or no shipments of iron ore are normally made in the first calendar quarter by Northshore Mining Company, the lessee/operator, because the Great Lakes shipping lanes are frozen during most of the period. By contrast, an unusually higher volume of shipments of iron ore pellets occurred this past January.

The volume of shipments by Northshore varies from quarter to quarter and year to year based on a number of factors, including weather conditions on the Great Lakes, the requested delivery schedules of customers and general economic conditions in the iron ore industry. The resulting royalties to the Trust are dependent on the volume of shipments for the quarter and the year to date, the pricing (which has recently been higher) of the iron ore product sales, and the percentage of iron ore shipments which is from Mesabi Trust lands relative to other lands.

With respect to the balance of 2004, Northshore has not advised Mesabi Trust as to its expected 2004 shipments or what percentage of 2004 shipments will be from Mesabi Trust iron ore. Northshore has indicated that currently scheduled 2004 pellet production will approximate 4.9 million tons, which is slightly more than both actual 2003 pellet production of approximately 4.84 million tons and actual 2003 pellet shipments of 4.87 million tons.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to iron ore pellet production and/or shipments at Northshore in 2004, which statements are intended to be made under the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Actual production and shipments of iron ore pellets could differ materially from current expectations due to inherent risks such as general and industry economic trends, uncertainties arising from war and other global events, higher or lower demand for steel and iron ore, higher imports of steel and iron ore substitutes, processing difficulties, consolidation and restructuring in the domestic steel market or other factors. Although the Mesabi Trustees believe that its forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially.