Recovery of fine ilmenite is challenging, resulting in significant waste of titanium resources. In this paper, the mineral phase transformation technology was proposed to strengthen the surface magnetism of fine ilmenite. The results demonstrated that in the oxidation stage, the suitable oxidation temperature was 700 °C and the oxidation time was 30 min. In the reduction stage, the ideal reduction temperature was 575 °C, the CO concentration was 20 %, and the reduction time was 3 min. Under the optimized roasting conditions, the roasted sample was separated by staged low-intensity magnetic separation, and titanium concentrate with a TiO2 grade of 46.24 % and recovery of 67.62 % was obtained. The XRD, SEM and VSM analysis implied that the oxidation products of ilmenite were hematite and rutile, where hematite was enriched on the surface of the particles and formed a layer of 2–5 μm. After reduction roasting, the hematite layer was directionally transformed into magnetite, which significantly enhanced the magnetism of the particles and created conditions for the recovery of titanium by low-intensity magnetic separation.