This thesis looks into the feasibility of producing marketable product-qualities from spateisenstein ore (spateisenstein is a siderite variety at the Steirische Erzberg) for the iron and steel industry using dense media cyclones. It is the main target to optimize the yield and the iron recovery at a given lower limit of iron grade in the concentrate. A test facility is available at the Institute of Mineral Processing. The first part of the thesis deals with the effects of the single setting parameters of the high dense media cyclone on the density spread between the product streams and the volume split of the streams. The tests are conducted by using methods of statistical design of experiments. It can be seen that the density of the feed influences the density spread between apex- and vortex-discharge most. The apex diameter and the shape of the cone are crucial for the ratio of the volume split. Furthermore fine, atomized ferrosilicon-types display better results than coarse ferrosilicon-types. This knowledge about parameter-impacts on the separation result is used for treating a feed material of a size fraction of -8+1 [mm]. A concentrate of the same quality as the already operating dense media separation in the coarse size range could be produced in terms of yield and iron grade. For the third part of this thesis a flow sheet and the design parameters for a high dense media cyclone operation at the Styrian Erzberg are designed for a feed rate of 100 t/h.