Steel slag is a by-product from steel production and has potential to act as a sorbent for several contaminants. Contaminated water is a global problem and cheap and simple remediation solutions are often sought. The potentials are many to use an industrial residue for water purification purposes e.g. low cost. The absorption efficiency was evaluated for two different steel slags further divided into two grain sizes, <0.9 mm and 0.9-2 mm. Laboratory experiments was conducted for three anionic elements; bromine, chromate and molybdate. Controlled parameters were; time, sorbent amount and sorbate concentration. The sorption was primarily dependent on the grain size and the smaller grain size had a higher sorption of all three tested anionic species. Unfortunately the results are partially affected by the release of the tested elements from the sorbent itself.