Metallurgical engineering is a discipline concerned with extracting metals from their ores, and the development, production and use of metallic materials.

Metallurgical engineering is based on the principles of science and engineering, and may be divided into process metallurgy, which is concerned with extracting metals from their ores to make refined alloys, and physical metallurgy,which involves the shaping, alloying, heat treatment, joining, corrosion protection and testing of metals. Metals are so widely used in engineering because they possess unique combinations of mechanical properties (strength, ductility and toughness) plus special physical characteristics (electrical and thermal conductivity) which can not be achieved by other materials. In addition to thousands of traditional alloys, there are many exciting new materials under development for modern engineering applications, for example aluminium-lithium alloys, high strength low alloy steels and metal matrix composites.