The waste material of precious metals is an important secondary resource. How to increase the utilization of these waste materials and treat them innoxiously is an important problem, and have drawn a wide attention around the world. In this paper, the characterization, origination, pretreatment methods of waste materials of precious metals and the recovering technology of gold, silver, platinum and palladium from above waste materials have been reviewed. Several suggestions about innoxious treatment on the waste materials of precious metals have been proposed.