The insufficient supply of high-grade pellet feeds and high production costs of oxidised pellets are important factors that significantly constraint the development and widespread application of the hydrogen-based shaft furnace direct reduction (H2-DR) process. Utilisation of hematite-goethite iron ores for H2-DR pellets production is one of effective measures to expand the source of pellet feeds and reduce production costs of both oxidised pellets and direct reduced iron (DRI). This work mainly investigated the balling and roasting performance of pellets made from high proportion of typical hematite-goethite ore fines (named as Ore G with 62 per cent Fe and a high LOI of 6.0 per cent) though a grate-kiln process, and further its metallurgical performance was evaluated under simulated HYL shaft furnace conditions. On this basis, the feasibility of using high-proportion Ore G in the preparation of H2-DR pellets and some possible measures for improvement of its metallurgical performance were discussed. The results indicate that Ore G exhibits good grindability but inferior dewatering performance due to its mineralogical characteristics, which suggest that a dry grinding process may be more preferable. Qualified green pellets with sufficient mechanical strength and thermal shock temperature can be manufactured for pellet mixtures with 0~50 per cent Ore G. However, increasing the proportion of Ore G tends to reduce the thermal stability of green pellets. Through optimisation of pellet blends, acid pellets with binary basicity of lower than 0.3, cold compressive strength of more than 2500 N/P and tumble index of higher than 95 per cent can be manufactured for blends with 30~50 per cent Ore G under similar preheating and roasting conditions. Compared with the base case with no addition of Ore G, the roasted pellets made from 30~50 per cent Ore G demonstrate better reducibility and clustering performance. However, increasing proportion of Ore G tends to deteriorate the low-temperature reduction disintegration index (LTD) and causes a slight increase in the reduction swelling index (RSI) due to formation of a more porous pellet structure and weaker bonding of hematite recrystallisation. Despite the adverse impacts of using high proportion of Ore G, it is found that through appropriate blend structure optimisation and basicity adjustment, the overall pellet production energy consumption can be maintained at a comparable level at a lower raw material costs. The study demonstrates that the proper proportion of Ore G for H2-DR pellet production is suggested to be no more than 30 per cent for a grate-kiln process.