[en] The effects of various processing conditions on (i) the degree of particle dispersion and (ii) the extent of particle breakage in hot-press:d compacts of coated particles in a pitch-bonded graphite matrix have been studied. A new mixing method was developed known as ''overcoating'', which yielded a random distribution, whereas the conventional methods, known as ''solvent'' and ''tumble'' mixing, gave an excessive degree of particle clustering for compacts containing 30^v/o of coated particles. Small changes in particle size and density had no effect on the overall dispersion. The short-range dispersion, as measured by counting the number of neighbours within a fixed distance, was found to be the best criterion for studying the quality of compacts with regard to particle distribution. On this basis an overcoated mix yielded the best compacts. (author)