High-energy ball-milling in hexane medium was employed to prepare amorphous Al-La-Fe-Ni alloys of three different nominal compositions (Al 82 La 10 Ni 4 Fe 4 , Al 85 La 9 Ni 3 Fe 3 and Al 88 La 6 Ni 3 Fe 3 , numbers indicate at.%). Using a planetary ball-mill (AGO-2) at a rotational speed of 300rpm, nearly complete amorphization could be achieved for the Al 82 La 10 Ni 4 Fe 4 alloy after milling for 350h. In contrast, the Al 85 La 9 Ni 3 Fe 3 and Al 88 La 6 Ni 3 Fe 3 samples remained crystalline to a certain extent even after prolonged milling and contained FCC Al crystallites. The glass forming ability was found to increase with decreasing Al and increasing La content, which can be ascribed to the enhanced atomic size mismatch of the constituents on La addition. Amorphous Al 82 La 10 Ni 4 Fe 4 powder undergoes two-stage crystallization with onset temperatures at 640 and 700K and glass transition at 566K. Differences to DSC traces of previously studied melt-spun samples are believed to be mainly due to carbon impurity incorporation and compositional changes during milling. Taking into account the DSC data, consolidation of amorphous Al 82 La 10 Ni 4 Fe 4 powder was attempted by means of spark-plasma sintering at a temperature of 613K and applied pressures of 400 and 600MPa. Compacts produced under these conditions were found to have relative densities of 80% and 96%, respectively.