Abstract: The sustainable development trend of nonferrous metals industry was analyzed from two perspectives：data envelopment analysis (DEA) and entropy evaluation.In addition，Yunnan’s nonferrous metals industry was taken as an example for empirical analysis.Approaches to healthy development of Yunnan’s nonferrous metals industry were explored，in order to make a contribution to regional economic growth and structure optimization of Yunnan province.Through likelihood computation，it was found that Yunnan’s nonferrous metals industry，as a whole，is in a weak unsustainable state.The main reasons are as follows：unstable and excessive investment leads to gradual decrease of scale efficiency；and lack of rationality and coordination among enterprises in terms of investment leads to excessive homogeneous，low-level and repeated investments.Therefore，relevant measures，including scientific，ordered and reasonable development planning，improving resource utilization efficiency，maintaining appropriate scale，and improving industry management level，should be taken to enhance Yunnan’s nonferrous metals industry’s strength and abilities to respond to market changes，so as to improve its sustained development ability.