In aerosol chamber experiments optical properties of airborne mineral dust samples of defined size distribution were measured. Extinction coefficients (b<sub>ext</sub>) and mass specific extinction cross sections (σ<sub>ext</sub>) were determined for Saharan dust samples from different locations. The results for σ<sub>ext</sub> were not very sensitive to the type of dust and varied at λ=550 nm between 3.3±0.4 m<sup>2</sup> g<sup>−1</sup> and 3.7±0.4 m<sup>2</sup> g<sup>−1</sup>. The absorption coefficients (b<sub>abs</sub>) and mass specific absorption cross sections (σ<sub>abs</sub>) were determined with a novel multi-wavelength photo-acoustic absorption spectrometer (PAS). Between λ=266 nm and λ=1064 nm the derived single scattering albedos (SSA) ranged from 0.63±0.04 to 0.99±0.01. Additionally the chemical and mineralogical composition of the dust samples was analysed with special regard to the iron oxide phases hematite and goethite. At λ=266 nm the mineral dust sample without any detectable iron oxides showed a significantly higher SSA compared to the sample with a hematite content of 0.6 wt-%.