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Ships waiting to be loaded with iron ore are seen at the Fortescue loading dock located at Port Hedland, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia December 3, 2013. Australian iron ore mining seems immune from the spending crunch afflicting other commodities as a slowdown in Chinese growth cools a decade-long mining boom. Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group are bulking up in Western Australia's iron-rich Pilbara desert as if the mining boom had never ended. A place where capital expenditure is still measured in the billions. The miners are speeding up transformation of an area the size of Peru into a moonscape of rust-red pits linked via thousands of kilometres (miles) of rail lines to giant iron ore ports perched on the easternmost edge of the Indian Ocean. Picture taken December 3, 2013. REUTERS/David Gray

Atlas Iron has suffered a massive annual loss of AU$1.4 billion as a result of the sloping iron ore prices. The net profit of the Pilbara iron ore miner plummeted because of write downs and asset impairments charges valued up to AU$1.1 billion, which can again be linked to the lower prices of iron ore.

Atlas Iron Managing Director David Flanagan held the "extremely challenging market conditions," with iron ore prices being dropped to US$47 (AU$63.79) a tonne, as responsible for the loss incurred.

"Yes, the changing iron ore market has meant we have had to take large asset write downs and that hurts," Mr Flanagan said. "While Atlas can't influence the iron ore price we have moved the needle on our cost base and are now seeing the results of the contractor collaboration model."

Selling increased by 12 percent for the Pilbara iron ore miner, but as the iron ore prices took a dive, its revenue went down by 35 percent to AU$718 million from AU$1.1 billion in 2014. The discounted lower quality iron ore produced by Atlas was valued at AU$59.96 at the time, which is 40 percent lower than the regular rate. The unpredictable and difficult market conditions forced the miner to halt productions in April at three of its operations. Production resumed after working out an innovative profit sharing agreement with key contractors and settled for low cost production.

Operations at all three mines have been resumed and Atlas is now aiming for a full capacity production at 14 to 15 million tonnes per year by the end of 2015. By increasing the production capacity it will be able to tap the benchmark price of US$50 (AU$76.79) a tonne. The miner also said that it is expecting to reach an average benchmark price of AU$67 to AU$77 a tonne in the next 12 months. But it also indicated if it fails to achieve that target along with other key assumptions, it would require to source additional funds through debt or equity markets.

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