"The iron ore ride is not recommended for the faint-hearted!" Fastmarkets MB Iron Ore Index tweeted on Friday after a week of record highs.

Its benchmark price for 62% fines rose $18.31 last Monday to $230.56/t then ceded $28.78 on Friday to $208.79/t.

The MySteel Australian 62% fines lost 2.88% to $219.50/t.

Although copper closed down more than 1% in London to US$10,214.50 per tonne, it remains well above the $10,000/t mark, reached for the first time since 2011 in the past fortnight.

Gold has risen to its highest point since February and was around $1,848 an ounce on the spot market this morning.

"A bit of work still needed before we see better trending conditions, but after reaching the double bottom target, price has held in well and looks like consolidation in an uptrend…if this kicks up I would be expecting $1,880 and maybe $1,900/oz, and it will be fascinating to see if this move lower in crypto has any positive implications for gold at all, given the relative store of value proposition," Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston said.

Among the mining majors, Rio Tinto fell 2.68% in London, Newmont rose 2.58% in New York and BHP was flat in morning Australian trade.