The present work reports preliminary results on the in-situ synthesis of iron carbide in copper during high energy milling of elemental powders. The crystallite size of copper was determined with X-ray diffraction (XRD). Powders were also observed with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The characterisation with XRD and SEM indicate that early during the milling a carbide dispersion is formed within a nanostructured copper matrix. Upon annealing at 600degreesC the carbide structure clearly evolves to Fe3C. High temperature annealings promote matrix grain coarsening, and a concurrent hardness decrease. However the hardness level determined represents a two-fold increase over pure nanostructured copper.