Abstract: Platinum group metals （PGMs） are strategic critical minerals characterized by their scarcity in China and significant global concentration. Ensuring the security of PGMs resources in China presents a critical and complex challenge. This paper adopts a cyclical perspective, encompassing both underground and above-ground resources, to examine the intricate global industrial chain of PGMs. Through an analysis of geological endowment, industrial applications, and financial attributes, the research identifies key sensitive factors and explores the influence of resource policies, technological advancements, and investment markets on the global PGMs industrial network. The findings indicate that the underground resources of PGMs are highly concentrated and limited, with above-ground resources dominated by a few entities, highlighting a clear oligopolistic control. The industrial value of PGMs extends through the transition from underground resources to urban minerals, creating a vast and complex industrial network. However, the concentration of urban minerals also facilitates the recycling of platinum-containing waste. In the financial sector, PGMs prices exhibit notable volatility during their transition from above-ground resources to trading platforms, driven primarily by the persistent tight balance between supply and demand. Future exploration and development of underground resources of PGMs will likely focus on new geological formations and metallogenic theories, while the economic efficiency of recycling above-ground resources will require not only engineering solutions, but also on the green process of resource recycling and the management of urban mineral wastes. Overall, the unique physical and chemical properties of PGMs, coupled with their diverse application scenarios, underscore the importance of both resource exploration and recycling for sustaining industrial growth. The study stressing that in addition to improving the management of urban minerals and the recycling of resources, it should also need to shift focus from solely underground resources to also prioritizing the recycling of above-ground resources, thereby addressing and overcoming the oligopolistic control exerted over the PGMs global industrial chain, often referred to as the “cocoon effect”.