Ceria-coated copper oxide powders were prepared by the precipitation method using cerium nitrate hexahydrate and ammonia as a precipitant. Heterogeneous nucleation and growth of ceria took place on the copper oxide surface by dispersing the copper oxide particles in cerium nitrate aqueous solution and subsequently adding ammonia into it. Process conditions such as the pH of the precursor solution and precipitation temperatures were carefully controlled for the homogeneous precipitation of ceria particles. It was found that copper oxide was homogeneously coated with nano-sized (similar to 20 nm) ceria particles at room temperature. The morphology of ceria and ceria-coated copper oxide powder were examined by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) as a function of precipitation temperature.