The Department, the first in Canada, originated in the late nineteenth century as an outgrowth of the Mining Department, originally as the Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Department and more recently, December 2007, to the Mining and Materials Engineering Department. It produces graduates for the materials industries of Canada (e.g. Inco, Falconbridge, Cominco, etc.), for the steel industry (e.g. Stelco, Dofasco, Ivaco, Algoma, etc.) and for industries making or using metallic materials/ceramics, polymers or composites of them (e.g. the automobile and aircraft industries). Graduates with advanced degrees find employment at universities and colleges as well as in research organizations like Inco Research Laboratory, NRC, Industrial Materials Institute, AECL, CANMET, Aerospace Manufacturing and Technology Centre, Aluminium Technology Centre, etc.

Materials Engineers are responsible for the entire processing stream for the transformation of minerals and recycled materials into usable products. At the front of the process stream, materials engineers are found in the concentration and upgrading operations. Later, extractive metallurgists look after the transformation of the minerals and recyle into crude and semi-refined products. Materials engineers control properties and optimize operations as well as oversee the manufacture of finished products. The key to materials engineering is the use of fundamental principles, together with computer modelling and control, to produce a high quality, competitively priced engineered material. Finally, where new materials are required, the materials engineer also examines new atomic combinations to create materials with enhanced properties.