The current work addresses the study of the recovery of rare earth elements (REE) from acid mine water by using cationic exchange resin. The acid water was obtained from a closed uranium mine in Brazil. Ion exchange experiments were carried out in batch with three different resins at 25±0.5 °C and pH values 1.4, 2.4 and 3.4 (natural). Data were adjusted to the Langmuir equation in order to calculate the maximum loading capacity (q_max) of the resins. The results of q_max for individual REE revealed that the resins present higher loading for La in detriment to the other REE. The Dowex 50WX8 and Lewatit MDS 200 H resins demonstrated favorable sorption profiles to REE, evidenced by values of equilibrium factor (R_L) and higher values of the Langmuir constants (b). The separation factors ( ${\alpha }_{\mathrm{H}\mathrm{R}\mathrm{E}\mathrm{E}}^{\mathrm{L}\mathrm{R}\mathrm{E}\mathrm{E}}$) indicates that resins are more selective for light REE at all pH studied. The selectivity of the resins for the REE can be described as light REE > heavy REE. The pH 1.4 and 3.4 are more favorable for the recovery of REE.