The sorption of divalent copper and nickel ions from aqueous solutions on natural and synthetic hydroxyapatites was investigated in batch mode at 25 and 40°C and over metal concentration range of 20–800 mg/L. Effect of initial pH solution was also investigated for two values pH 4.5 and pH 6. The sorption equilibrium data were well fitted by Langmuir’s model. Both hydroxyapatites are efficient to remove copper and nickel ions, despite their different compositions and morphologies. The sorption mechanism involved an ion exchange between calcium ions of hydroxyapatite and metal ions along with pronounced precipitation, particularly in case of the synthetic hydroxyapatite. Higher sorption efficiencies were observed with the synthetic hydroxyapatite towards copper ions, similar values for both synthetic and natural hydroxyapatites were found towards Ni ion’s sorption and lower values at pH 6.