The society was formed in 1958 as The Coal Preparation Society with the objective of providing a forum for the free and full exchange of information and technical data relating to the cleaning of coal.

Its members were drawn from engineers and scientists from the National Coal Board, universities, colleges and companies involved in designing and constructing washing plants.

Membership in the early days was by invitation, but as knowledge of the society became known, applications were accepted and numbers rose quickly to 450. As the value of consistently prepared coal became appreciated, the Society grew to have membership of over 1,100, however with the contraction of the UK coal industry membership is now about 650.

In the late 1960's it was realised that the UK coal industry would decline and it was decided to widen the spectrum of interest to embrace all types of mineral engineering and so the Minerals Engineering Society (MES) was formed in 1970.

The MES has always recognised the part played by engineers at plant level and its strength is in that membership.