Cemented carbides have dominated the cutting tool market. Recent works have shown the development of new WC-materials in order to improve their mechanical properties and oxidation behavior. This work reports the first results produced by the addition of aluminum oxide in a tungsten carbide matrix. WC-material with 10 wt.% of cobalt was mixed with 5 and 10 wt.% of Al(2)O(3) in a planetary hall mill. Subsequently, samples with 10 mm in diameter were uniaxially hot-pressed. The composite material was characterized by X-ray diffraction, hardness and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the addition of 10 wt.% of Al(2)O(3) has improved the hardness value of the tungsten carbide matrix.