The price of iron ore has once again fallen below $US70 a tonne.
Iron ore started the year on a positive note, trading at $US71.26 a tonne last week.
But benchmark iron ore for delivery at the port of Tianjin in China was trading at $US69.80 a tonne at the end of the last session.
This is six per cent higher than the five-year low the commodity dropped to in December of $US65.70 but still about 40 per cent lower than the price it was fetching this time last year.
CitiGroup expects the iron ore price will average $60 a tonne in 2015 and 2016.
The Federal Government has also cut its iron ore price predictions to $63 a tonne.
Smaller iron ore miners BC Iron, Mount Gibson and Atlas Iron all shed jobs as the iron ore price squeezed break-even prices last year.
Last week the volatile price of iron ore claimed more jobs with Cape Lambert Resources cutting 117 people.
