Procedures are described for coating of submicrometre ceramic powders with copper and nickel. The process required precoating of the core particles with a palladium catalyst. A precoating procedure was developed in which palladium chloride is reduced by sodium hypophosphite or stannous chloride on the powder surface in aqueous suspensions. Commercial electroless solutions were used to deposit copper and nickel on the catalysed powders. The effect of various experimental parameters on the effectiveness of the surface conditioning of the particles was also investigated.