The Mineral Processing Engineering education at the Istanbul Technical University has started as a division of the "Mining Engineering Department" which was formed as a part of the Mining Faculty in 1953. The division was re-organized as a department of the same faculty in order to meet the requirements of engineering education.

The first and only Mineral Processing Engineering Department in Turkey was first established in Istanbul Technical University; it starts education in 2007-2008 academic year and gives lessons about ore and coal processing to students at mining engineering together with their students. 

In 2010, educational programs with 100 % English courses were opened in our university. And in 2010-2011 academic year, 25 students were accepted to program with 30 % English courses and 25 students were accepted to program with 100 % English courses to our department. In addition, in the end of 2010-2011 spring term, first mineral processing engineers were graduated from our department, assaying 6 students. But in total we have 100 graduates now. 

Previous Heads of the Department are as follows: 

Prof.Dr. Güven ÖNAL (March 19, 2007 - December 2007)
Prof.Dr. Ali GÜNEY (December, 2007 - November 13, 2008)
Prof.Dr. Fatma ARSLAN (November 13, 2008 - November 13, 2011)
Prof.Dr. Gündüz ATEŞOK (November 29, 2011 - November 28, 2014) 
Prof.Dr. Fatma ARSLAN (November, 2014 - August, 2015)
Prof.Dr. Ayhan Ali SİRKECİ (August, 2015 - August, 2018)
Prof.Dr. Gülay BULUT (September, 2018 - September, 2021)
Prof.Dr. Feridun BOYLU (September, 2021 - January 2024)
Prof.Dr. Murat Olgaç KANGAL (January 2024 - ...)