One of the effective and widespread methods of surface hardening of metal products is an ion-plasma saturation of the surface of machine parts and mechanisms with various elements (nitrogen, oxygen, carbon). Less investigated method is the process of ion-plasma saturation of the metals and alloys surface with boron. The purpose of the present work is to develop a method for the formation and study of parameters (electron temperature, plasma potential and concentration), elemental and charge composition of plasma generated at sputtering of a target from amorphous boron powder. To achieve the stated goal, a discharge system with a hot anode made of powder boron, as well as a pulse arc evaporator with a hot cathode made of sintered boron powder, was developed, designed, created and tested. Charge and elemental composition of boron-containing plasma generated during powder target sputtering from amorphous boron are defined by optical spectrometry method. It is shown that the generated plasma contains mainly neutral atoms and single-charge boron ions, as well as iron, silicon, copper and argon particles.