The Tapajós River rises at state do Mato Grosso, lard part of state do For  and flows into Amazon river. The Tapajós river basin covers 6% of the waters of amazon basin, being the fifth largest basin in the system. The length of the Tapajós River is 1,784 meters.

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The name Tapajós originates from the Tapajó indigenous people.

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Illegal mining in the Amazon, both on land and on rivers (rafts), has grown in recent years. The Tapajós Basin is one of the regions where this growth has been most expressive in Brazil, and it is where the mining area has tripled in the last 10 years, growing to the equivalent of an area the size of the city of Porto Alegre.

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