Heavy oil upgrading to produce light fuels is an important strategy to solve the depletion of light crude oil. Partial oxidation using transition metal oxides as oxygen carrier is a potential method for heavy oil upgrading. A series of Fe-Mn mixed metal oxides were synthesized and used for partial oxidation of vacuum residue (VR) in this study. As a result, the gasoline and diesel oil yields increase on Fe-Mn mixed metal oxides. The carbonaceous residue yield decreases with the increasing Mn content. A variety of characterizations were carried out to reveal the correlation between the physicochemical properties of the mixed metal oxides and partial oxidation performance. To achieve oxygen regeneration and stable production of light fuels, a chemical looping partial oxidation process using Fe1Mn3 as carrier of oxygen was proposed. The Fe1Mn3 shows potential application in VR upgrading with partial oxidation.