Index: p. 527-533.

This volume collects selected papers presented at the Symposium on Characterization of Minerals, Metals and Materials organized in conjunction with the 2012 TMS Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL, USA. To process minerals, metals and materials, it is always necessary to understand the chemistries, physical properties, forms, structures, occurrences, functions, relations, etc., of the associated materials prior, during, and after the processing of materials. This type of work, which is broadly understood as characterization, is usually the first step taken to define and solve the industrial processing problems. Various characterization technologies have been developed and applied to meet the needs. In many cases, characterization has served as the brain for the processing of materials. The Materials Characterization Committee of TMS sponsors this symposium annually as a major event of its activities. The committee is under the Extraction & Processing Division and has extended its focus from the Process Mineralogy for the mineral processing industry in the early days to the downstream metals and materials processing fields. Characterization is the common theme for all these areas. This symposium received more than 150 abstracts from all over the world. Among them, 105 were selected for presentations on the symposium and 60 papers were accepted for publication in this book after a peer review process.The book is divided into nine sections and each section has different focus. They include Characterization Technologies, Minerals and Ceramics, Ferrous Metals, Nonferrous Metals, Light Metals, Environmental and Construction Materials, Carbon and Soft Materials, and Energy, Electronic and Optical Materials. In each section, the characterization technologies developed and applied for the specific material are discussed with various examples.