The physico-mechanical properties of rocks have crucial influence on their abrasion rates. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the rock properties that govern their abrasion resistivity. For that purpose, about 132 core specimens, of granite, marble, serpentine, and breccia, were extracted from two locations in Wadi El-Miah region in the vicinity of Idfo-Mars Alam Road, South-East, Egypt. Several laboratory tests were conducted to determine the relationships between abrasion resistance and physical (i.e. porosity, density and P-wave velocity) and mechanical (i.e. uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength and surface hardness) properties of these rocks. Subsequently, statistical analysis was employed to derive equations for estimating abrasion rates based on physico-mechanical rock properties. The results showed that the abrasion resistance decreases with increasing uniaxial compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength; Schmidt rebound hardness, P-wave velocity, and bulk density. It was also revealed that the abrasion rate increases with increasing effective porosity. Additionally, the derived equations showed good correlations between abrasion resistance and bulk density; Schmidt rebound hardness; and tensile strength (i.e. R2 = 0.72–0.84). Thus, they can be successfully used to predict the abrasion rates. Hence, rock abrasion rate could be adopted as a tool to sort out stones for proper industrial purposes (i.e. flooring, heavy traffic, decoration, construction, building, etc.).