The Egyptian magmatic ilmenite is classified as a medium-grade ore. The present work is an attempt to produce a high-quality TiO₂ that can be used in several industries from this medium-grade raw material using the mechanical activation, carbothermic reduction, hydrochloric acid leaching and calcination. A mixture from the ilmenite (FeTiO₃) and activated carbon was milled for 30 h. This mixture was annealed at 1200 °C for one hour and the product was leached by hydrochloric acid and calcined at 600 °C for two hours. The role of the ball milling was to grind the raw ilmenite to obtain the nano size, and the carbothermic reduction was to reduce all the Fe-Ti phases to a mixture from Fe metal and TiO₂. Leaching procedure was carried out to remove all the Fe metal and obtain a high-grade TiO₂. After leaching and calcination of the milled and annealed mixture of FeTiO₃/C under the optimal conditions, TiO₂ nanoparticles with a size of 10–100 nm and purity more than 95% were obtained. The qualifications of the synthesized high purity rutile nanoparticles from the Egyptian natural ilmenite match the conditions of many industrial applications.