Contaminated industrial waste water often contain highly toxic substances, among which the most dangerous heavy metal compounds. One of the most successful solutions to this problem is to develop new and efficient methods of extraction and concentration of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. In combination with the known technology of water treatment applying the sorption method allows to provide a high level of water purification from wide spectrum of contaminants. As the sorbent used sorbent obtained on the basis of opal-cristobalite rocks of the Sukhoi Log Deposit in Sverdlovsk region. For the Urals this material is local natural mineral sorbent that determines the economic feasibility of its application in water treatment processes. With the aim of obtaining a more efficient collector of heavy nonferrous metals from aqueous solutions of reagent treatment of natural sorbent by impregnation with solutions of inorganic salts and bases, followed by drying at room temperature. To establish changes in the structure of the sorbents under the action of modifying reagents, a comprehensive study of composition, structure and phase characteristics before and after modification process. Studied the chemical and mineral composition of the flask. Removed the IR spectra of samples of the sorbent in the range of wave numbers 400-4000 cm-1, determined by the nature of the changes occurring in the chemical activation process. By the method of X-ray phase analysis (XRD) determined the composition of the crystalline phases present in the materials. By electron probe X-ray microanalysis (RSMA) determined the elemental composition of the sorbents. The studies revealed that the process of the chemical modification of the flask with a solution of sodium chloride and sodium hydroxide takes place on the surface of silica. The consolidation of the compounds of the modifier is primarily due to the presence on the surface of the sorbent silanol groups Si-OH. A possible mechanism of sorption of ions of copper(II) from aqueous solutions obtained sorbents. It is shown that the saline and alkaline treatment natural of the flask increases the number of active exchange centers ( Si-O-Na) responsible for sorption of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions.