The development of new technologies and estrategies in mining and geological exploration of mineral deposits are close related to the quality of the components of the drilling tools. Drilling crowns, for instance, are built fixing hard particles (inserts) in a metallic matrix. Industrial diamonds are usefull as cutting particles impregnated in a metallic alloy having Cu, Fe, W, Co, as the major elements. In order to have an excelent performance during drilling an optimum adherence between inserts (abrasive particles) and matrix combined with the wear rate of the matrix is the challenge of materials engineering for high quality drilling tools. Industrial diamonds are widely used as cutting particles and their performance depends on operational parameters and on the quality of the diamonds (morphology, purity, size distribution,...) and their adherence to matrix. According to these considerations the main parts of the drilling crown – the teeth – are sophisticated metal matrix – ceramic material manufactured by powder metallurgy methods in which pressure, temperature, atmosphere and powder quality have to be well controlled to achieve good results. In order to contribute to develop best cutting parts the quality of diamonds plays a distinguished role. Accordingly to these considerations an experimental method was developed to characterise the abrasivity of diamonds crystals (natural or synthetic) for this kind of application. The test configuration is a classic three body tribosystem: counterbody, abrasive (diamonds) and a rock sample which wear (loss of mass) shows how efficiently the abrasive is. The method consists in measure the cutting efficiency of particles (diamonds) against a rock reference sample. The mass loss of this rock sample is the parameter evaluated along the tests. Depending on diferences of mass loss rate caused by diferent diamonds, these hard particles can be ranking in terms of abrasivity – their capability to wear the sample. Results are presented validating the experimental method: diamonds from diferent suppliers show diferent capacity in wearing the reference rock body. A microstructural characterisation of the diamonds, done by SEM, provides informations about their chemical, morphological and structural quality. In conclusion this method allows to select hard particles for tribological applications.