The purpose of this work was to evaluate at different stages of environmental recovery the changes in chemical and physical attributes of topsoil impacted by iron mining in the Itabira-MG region that belongs to a mining company,  The environmental recovery of iron mining waste piles in a mine in the Itabira-MG region was evaluated and the physical and chemical attributes that influenced the recovery of the degraded areas were assessed. The results of analyses from different stages of topsoil pile recovery were compared and the results were statistically evaluated. The influence of these parameters on predicting the recovery of these impacted areas was verified. It was observed that the older waste piles showed better results regarding the presence of vegetation and microbiota. The chemical analysis of the soil showed a lower availability of nitrogen and phosphate. Metals showed a slight relative decrease (due to leaching and consumption by microorganisms in general). The upper layers showed greater variation in the general parameters of their components due to the removal promoted by vegetation. The total organic matter, for example, was found to be higher in more superficial layers due to the decomposition of plants, while deeper layers may have their total organic matter values related to old surface plants that were buried during the topsoil extraction process.