China News Service, Kunming, October 30 (Reporter Chen Jing) The 2026 China Precious Metals Forum was held in Kunming, Yunnan from the 29th to the 30th. The "2026 Precious Metals Blue Book" (hereinafter referred to as the "Blue Book") released by the forum pointed out that driven by the overall increase in precious metal prices, the global precious metals market has grown by 79.3% in five years.
Precious metals include 8 types of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium. The six types other than gold and silver are called platinum group metals. Precious metals are mainly used in three major fields: industry, jewelry, and investment. In addition to traditional industrial fields such as automobile manufacturing, chemical engineering, electronics, and electrical, 5G, intercity rail transit, new energy vehicles, big data, artificial intelligence, and the industrial Internet are all inseparable from the support of new precious metal materials. Yunnan is a province with major nonferrous metal resources in China. In 2025, the total industrial output value of Yunnan's rare and precious metal industry exceeded 130 billion yuan, exceeding the annual target.
The "Blue Book" released at this forum systematically sorts out and analyzes the global precious metals market from the perspectives of resource distribution, supply and demand structure, import and export policies, technological evolution and industrial trends.
"Usually, the industry focuses more on the market price performance and development of precious metals such as gold and silver." Dai Hua, director of the Information Center of Yunnan Precious Metals New Materials Holding Group Co., Ltd., said that the "Blue Book" brings together information about the entire precious metals industry and fills the gap in comprehensive industry information. It is equivalent to providing practitioners with a "panoramic map" of the industry to make decisions based on evidence.
The "Blue Book" pointed out that compared with 2021, the size of the global precious metals market has increased by 79.3% in the past five years. Among them, the size of the industrial market has increased by 5.5%, and the size of the jewelry and investment markets has increased by 41.7% and 223.5% respectively. In addition to the factors of demand growth, it is mainly due to the overall increase in precious metal prices in the past five years.
Focusing on 2025, the precious metals market experienced a general rise that exceeded expectations. Gold, silver, platinum and other varieties have successively set historical price records, becoming one of the most outstanding asset classes throughout the year.
The "Blue Book" pointed out that from a macro and geo-driven perspective, the continued fermentation of global trade frictions and the protracted geopolitical conflicts in many places in 2025 have boosted market risk aversion. Coupled with the loosening of monetary policies in major economies and concerns about the credit of the U.S. dollar, the hedging properties of precious metals have been repriced by the market.
In addition, structural changes in supply and demand are the core support of this round of market conditions. The total global demand for precious metals in 2025 will be 41,400 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 1.7% from 2024, mainly due to a sharp decline in jewelry demand, while investment demand increased by 10.4% year-on-year.
The "Blue Book" pointed out that in 2026, the core logic of precious metals and platinum group metals has switched from a pure monetary hedging attribute to a two-wheel drive of "financial attribute + green industrial rigid demand". The rapid development of new energy catalysis and hydrogen energy industries will open up long-term incremental space for platinum group metals.
