The Amazon region has large and valuable deposits of kaolin. Only in the State of Pará are three major kaolin processing industries located. Research reveals that the tailings originated from the beneficiation of this ore is rich in silicon-aluminates, thus becoming a material with great potential for the study of adsorption. The present study had as objective to evaluate the adsorption capacity of the kaolin waste generated during the processing stage aiming its application as a low cost adsorbent material. The tailings were calcined at 700 ° C for 2 hours and then activated with sulfuric, hydrochloric and nitric acid. The samples were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (FRX). The ability of the samples to remove the methylene blue dye from aqueous solutions was evaluated by the batch method, whose data were calculated by Langmuir and Freundlich models. The values show that samples of "in natura" and calcined kaolin activated with hydrochloric, sulfuric and nitric acid can be considered a material of high potential for technological use. However, the samples that best fit the Langmuir model in this work were "in natura" activated with nitric acid (RCN-HNO3), and calcined activated with nitric acid (RCC-HNO3), where the adsorption capacity reached (RCC-HNO3) was 15.847 mg.g-1 and for (RCN-HNO3) was 8.665 mg.g-1.
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