Atlas Iron's horror year has been aired in bleak full year results marred by a staggering $1.4 billion loss and a warning of likely challenges repaying debt.

The Pilbara iron ore miner's dramatic plunge into the red from a net profit after tax of $14 million a year earlier, was attributed to asset impairments and write downs of almost $1.1 billion.

Atlas managing director David Flanagan blamed the result on "extremely challenging market conditions", with the benchmark iron ore price close to halving during the year to as low as $US47 a tonne.

"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."

Tonnes sold increased 12 per cent but the price slide forced revenue down 35 per cent to $718 million from $1.1 billion in 2014. The average price Atlas received for its discounted lower quality ore was 40 per cent lower during the period, at $59.96 a tonne.

Tough market conditions forced Atlas to temporarily suspend operations in April before a innovative profit-sharing agreement struck with some of its key contractors allowed it to return to production at lower costs.

Atlas is back in operation at all three of its mines and plans to reach full production capacity of between 14 and 15 million tonnes a year by December, at which point it hopes to be able to break even at a benchmark price of $US50 a tonne.

The key commodity is trading around $US55 a tonne.

But the miner isn't completely out of the woods. Because of a weaker Australian dollar, Atlas' US dollar denominated borrowings have become a much heavier burden.

In notes to the financial accounts, which were released to the market at 7.30pm EST on Thursday, Atlas reassured investors it remained in compliance with the key covenant on its $US268 Term Loan B debt facility despite its headroom rapidly shrinking.

The key covenant requires Atlas to maintain a two-to-one ratio of total asset value to secured debt. At June 30, Atlas had total assets of $775.5 million against secured debt of $349 million, keeping it just out of the firing line of its lender group.

Atlas repeated a warning issued in a recent prospectus there was likely to be a shortfall between its cash balance and the amount it owes on the loan when it matures in December 2017 but said it expects to be able to refinance or reschedule the debt before then, dependent on iron ore prices.

The miner said it expects the benchmark price to average between $67 and $77 a tonne over the next 12 months but said if its price and other key assumptions are not achieved, "the company may be required to source additional funds through debt or equity markets".

"In this regard the directors are reviewing other funding options, such as unsecured debt, convertible notes and offtake agreements with financing elements," Atlas said.

"Depending on the outcome of the future funding alternatives, were the recent volatility experienced in the Australian dollar iron ore price to continue and result in a significant and sustained decline from forecast prices to December 2017, there would likely be significant uncertainty in the company's ability to refinance or reschedule the Term Loan B facility at its maturity and therefore its ability to continue as a going concern,"Atlas said.

Atlas recently sought to raise $180 million on equity markets but fell far short of its target, collecting $87 million of which just $53 million was new cash.

The miner burnt through $214.7 million cash during the year, and ended the period with $73.3 million in the bank. Atlas declined to pay a dividend.