Abstract: As a precious platinum group element, iridium (Ir) is widely used in the fields of high-tech and military technology. The reserves of the metal iridium in China are extremely limited and the waste containing iridium has become an important resource of iridium. Therefore, the study of recovering Ir from these secondary resources has attracted much attention. In this paper, the secondary resources of iridium were introduced, and the methods of recovering iridium such as induction melting, oxidation distillation, chemical precipitation, extraction, adsorption and so on were discussed in detail. Due to the cumbersome steps, high energy consumption, low efficiency, and environmental pollution, methods such as induction melting and oxidative distillation were less used today. Although chemical precipitation, extraction, adsorption and other methods were simple and short, they could not be completed in one step, which meant the secondary recovery was needed. From this, bio-method will be an important development direction which can realize the sustainable use of Ir in secondary resources.