Aqueous solutions that contained 400 mg/L of ammonia were oxidized in a batch reactor in this study of Cu-La-Ce composite metal catalysts, which were prepared by the co-precipitation with aqueous solutions of copper nitrate, lanthanum nitrate and cerium nitrate. Results demonstrated that the conversion of ammonia by wet oxidation in the presence of Cu-La-Ce composite metal catalysts followed by calcinations temperature ranging from 773 to 973 K. The ammonia solutions were removed, while around 95% of the ammonia was reduced during the wet oxidation over the Cu-La-Ce composite metal catalyst calcined at 773 K and an oxygen partial pressure of 4.0 MPa. Furthermore, the catalysts were characterized using XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis, BET, PSA and TEM, has shown that the catalytic behavior is related to the copper (II) oxide, while lanthanum (III) and cerium (IV) oxide may serve only to provide active sites for the reaction during a catalyzed wet oxidation run. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.