The search for alternative technologies and low operating cost for removal of heavy metals from effluent has directing attention to biosorption. Recently, various biological materials, such as bacteria and agro‐waste, have been used for removal of metallic ions from industrial effluents. Biosorption of heavy metals by biological species involves several mechanisms that, in general, depending on the type of specie used and biomass processing procedure. Cobalt and manganese are widely used in many industrial applications, consequently they are present in effluent derived from various industrial processes, for example: mining, alloy production. The objective of this work is to investigate the efficiency of Rhodococcus opacus, which presents various phenolic and carboxylic groups (able to interact with metal ions in solution), as an adsorbent for the removal of Co(II) and Mn(II) from aqueous solutions, aiming future applications for the treatment of effluents. Surface physical characterization of R. opacus was carried by MEV, zeta potential and FTIR analysis. The biomass, R. opacus, was previously treated with 0.1 mol.L(-1) NaOH solution and used in all biosorption experiments. All the biosorption tests were carried out in batch and the parameters evaluated were: pH, concentration of biomass and metal, contact time and temperature. The best pH value for biosorption of Co(II) and Mn(II) were 7.0 and 5.0 respectively. For both metal studied, the specific biosorption capacity was higher in solutions containing low metals concentrations. For both metals, the biosorption process was better described by the Langmuir and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. The thermodynamics parameters, such as DeltaG, DeltaS and DeltaH were calculated and the biosorption process for Co(II) and Mn(II) removal from the aqueous solutions were considered endothermic and exothermic reactions, respectively. This work shown the R. opacus can be applied for removal Co(II) and Mn(II) ions from aqueous solutions. After 180 min contact of biomass with solutions containing Co(II) and Mn(II), 84 per cent and 97 per cent of the metallic ion present in the solutions were removed.