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The soil of the region of the Santo Amaro lead smelter presents anomalous content of Pb and Zn and other potentially toxic elements such as Cu, Cd and As, due to the emissions from the smelter t. In order to understand the process of releasing-retention of these elements, as well as for the definition of remediation strategies, this soil was sampled, processed and characterized. In this study it was used X-ray diffraction, thermo-gravimetric analysis, infrared spectroscopy and diffuse reflectance of clay fraction of this soil previously separated and dried. The results show that the clay fraction of this vertisol is composed of kaolinite, montmorillonite and illite. Due to the fact that these clay minerals have affinity with several metallic cations, the penetration of the potentially toxic elements in soil of the region of Santo Amaro lead smelter is low, despite of high concentrations at the top soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]