Surging iron ore prices over the past six months and the lower Australian dollar have extended the stay of execution for many of Australia's smaller iron ore miners.

However, now some are trying to diversify to survive and dodge the next likely downturn in a highly cyclical market.

The past few years have been a wild ride for the junior miners.

As prices hit a low below $US40 a tonne in late 2015, "boomtime babies" like Atlas Iron and BC Iron were forced to mothball production.

Over the course of the next two-and-a-half years mines gradually came back into production as demand picked up in China.

Thanks to China's stimulus spending and policy changes - including coal mine and steel mill shutdowns - spot prices more than doubled in a little more than a year, hitting their recent peak of $US95 a tonne in February.