The size of the market for precious metals and stones in Russia contracted by a whole 25.2 percent in the year 2012, according to a recent report by the Datamonitor group. At the same time, the market is expected to go up 57.3 percent to USD25.8 billion by 2017. In terms of volume, the market in 2012 was at 1,826.6 tons of products. In five years, the market is expected to increase some 29.3 percent to 2,361 tons. In terms of market segmentation, the most important market sub-sector is gold. Gold in 2012 comprised 69.5 percent of the precious metals and minerals market. Russia’s share of the European market for precious stones and metals is 80.7 percent.