New Zealand ironsand is a titanomagnetite (TTM) ore and a potential cheap source of iron units. Direct reduction of the ore using hydrogen gas is attractive as there are extant technologies/processes that are capable of utilizing the feed and reductant gas. Further, the use of hydrogen gas as a reductant offers potential environmental benefits. Common direct reduction technologies utilise pellets. During pelletisation, the TTM is oxidised to titanohematite (TTH), which has the added possible benefit of increasing the downstream rate of reduction.In this study the reduction of TTH pellets by hydrogen gas was studied to understand the pellet reduction mechanism and to establish a kinetic reaction model for the possible direct reduction of the TTM ore.TTH pellets are made by pelletising a mixture of wet milled TTM ironsand, 1 wt% bentonite and water. The green TTM pellets are then sintered in air to form TTH. Thermogravimetric analysis is used to measure the reaction progress at temperatures between 770 C to 1170 C at a hydrogen gas flow rate of 520 ml/min. Ex situ X-ray diffraction is used to trace the evolution of key critical phases at different temperatures. Scanning electron microscopy is used to characterise the phase and morphology changes on reduction at different temperatures.It was found that the reduction rate of the TTH pellets increases with increasing temperature up to 1170 C. Metallic iron and ilmenite are found in the reduced pellets at all temperatures. At temperatures higher than 870 C, the second Ti-bearing phase is pseudobrookite, while at and below 870 C, rutile is present. A single interface shrinking core model is found to give a good representation of the bulk kinetics for reduction degrees from 90% onwards. CITATION:Zhang, A, Longbottom, R J, Nusheh, M, Bumby, C W and Monaghan, B J, 2019. Hydrogen reduction of New Zealand titanohematite pellets, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2019, pp 464470 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).