Mesabi Trust Announces 2nd Quarter Royalty.

Business Editors

The Trustees of Mesabi Trust (NYSE: MSB) declared a distribution of $0.05 per Unit of Beneficial Interest payable on August 20, 2002 to Mesabi Trust unitholders of record at the close of business on July 30, 2002.

This compares to $0.07 per Unit for the same

Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc., the corporate parent of Northshore Mining, now projects that scheduled iron ore production at Northshore in 2002 will likely total between 3.5 million tons and 4.0 million tons of iron ore pellets projected earlier this year. No forecast of the volume of shipments of iron ore pellets in 2002 was provided.

Royalties paid to the Trust are dependent on the volume of shipments of iron ore pellets for the quarter and the year to date, the pricing of the iron ore product sales and the percentage of iron ore pellet shipments from Mesabi Trust lands rather than from other lands. The volume of shipments of iron ore pellets by Northshore and the pellet sales prices vary 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.

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to iron ore production at Northshore in 2002, which statements are intended to be made under the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual production and shipments of iron ore pellets could differ materially from current expectations due to inherent risks such as lower demand for steel, iron ore, higher steel imports, processing difficulties 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.