In this study, traditional ceramic process was used to prepare isotropic barium-based ferrite permanent magnets. The lower grade iron oxide powder (Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>) manufactured by China Steel Corporation (CSC) was used as the main raw material to prepare calcined magnetic powders with different Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>/BaCO<sub>3</sub> mole ratios (5.3–5.65). It can be seen from the experimental results that the remanence (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$B_{\mathrm {r}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) decreases with the increase of mole ratio, but the intrinsic coercivity (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{\mathrm {i}}H_{\mathrm {c}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) shows the opposite trend. On the other hand, the sintering radial shrinkage rate (Sh-D) and sintering height shrinkage rate (Sh-H) both decrease as mole ratio increases, but the required molding pressure is higher. On condition of Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>/BaCO<sub>3</sub> mole ratio = 5.4, Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> = 81.38 wt%, BaCO<sub>3</sub> = 18.62 wt%, the magnetic properties of the final sintered magnet can reach: <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$B_{\mathrm {r}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> > 2250 G, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{\mathrm {b}}H_{\mathrm {c}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> > 1950 Oe, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{\mathrm {i}}H_{\mathrm {c}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> > 3300 Oe, (<i>BH</i>)<sub>max</sub> > 1.15 MGOe, which are obtained on the basis without expensive lanthanum and cobalt. In terms of the operability, the sintering shrinkage rate Sh-D < 15.1% and required molding pressure of magnetic powder < 2.5 ton/cm<sup>2</sup> both meet the specifications of the permanent magnet industry. Above results successfully overcome high-cost technical bottlenecks in the past in order to achieve high characteristics and formability, and comprehensively improve magnetic properties, operability, and production efficiency. The low-cost isotropic barium-based ferrite permanent magnets with good magnetic properties and operability realized in this work have been practically used in high-efficiency small automobiles motors, such as electric rearview mirror motor.