The free sintering of metallic powders blended with non sintering inclusions is investigated by the Discrete Element Method (DEM). Each particle, whatever its nature (metallic or inclusion) is modeled as a sphere that interacts with its neighbors. We investigate the retarding effect of the inclusions on the sintering kinetics. Also, we present a simple coarsening model for the metallic particles, which allows large particles to grow at the expense of the smallest.