A magnesium AZ31 alloy was processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) for up to 8 passes to reduce the grain size to similar to 1.0 mu m. Following ECAP, microhardness measurements were taken to evaluate the mechanical properties of the material. Ball-on-disc dry sliding tests were conducted to compare the wear behaviour of the as-received alloy and the alloy processed by ECAP. The surface topography and volume loss were recorded for all samples. The results show that the fluctuations and average values of the coefficient of friction are improved after processing by ECAP. In addition, there is a decrease in the wear depth and volume loss with increasing numbers of ECAP passes. The ECAP-processed alloy has a higher wear resistance than the unprocessed alloy and it is a suitable candidate material for use in industrial applications.