Amorphous hematite synthesized by a simple and fast microwave route was used to obtain Fe16N2 fine particles by reducing in 5% H-2/Ar gas flow, followed by long time nitridation in ammonia gas flow at temperatures below 200 degrees C. Depending on nitridation temperature, various amounts of metallic iron were present along with the alpha" -Fe16N2 main phase. A small amount of iron oxide was observed by Mossbauer spectroscopy, but it was undetected by X-ray diffraction due to its high degree of amorphization. Increased amounts of Fe3N and Fe4N phases were observed at a nitridation temperature above 150 degrees C, which had a detrimental effect on the magnetic properties. Structural information and phase composition were extracted from Rietveld refinement of the XRD data. Values of the magnetization at saturation measured at 40 kOe and 25 degrees C of 222 emu/g for alpha"-Fe16N2 and 192 emu/g for metallic iron were obtained via magnetic measurements, Rietveld, and Mossbauer analysis.