This is the belief of Eastern Goldfields Prospectors Association president Cranston Edwards, who is also on the management committee of the Amalgamated Prospectors and Leaseholders Association of WA.

He had expected the increasing issue of pastoralists objecting to mining tenements, and the "headache" caused by recreational prospectors who showed little consideration to other tenement holders and land users, to also be raised at APLA's AGM on the weekend.

"In recent times, there is not one year when a new law, regulation or other land competing or sharing entities are either intentionally or unintentionally threatening the livelihoods of prospectors and small miners," he told Mining Journal's sister publication MiningNews.Net last week.

He referred to proposed scaled fees for land clearing in WA, saying the change was not just aimed at miners but also local governments, and a proposed new minimum fee of about $5000 for water bore licences.

"Those concerned on this I encourage to write with their concerns to DWER, being [the] Department of Water and Environment Regulation prior to closing of submissions in early November," he said.

In the discussion paper, the department has said the government was looking to increase cost recovery from regulatory services.

It also said WA was the only Australian jurisdiction that did not apply any form of cost recovery for managing water resources, including for water licence administration and assessment and water resource planning.

The number of people out trying their luck prospecting has increased since the conglomerate gold rush to the Pilbara last year and a recent TV series featuring Goldfields gold hunters.

"By all accounts the numbers of first time recreational fossickers and metal detectorists in some cases and areas are very high," Edwards said.

"I can confirm that in the Leonora region, the numbers in the bush over the past 18 months have considerably increased."

However the increasing hobbyists' activity has caused some headaches according to prospectors, with not all respecting tenement holders' rights.

Kalgoorlie gold trader Richard Mancuso agreed the number of people trying to find gold had increased and said experienced prospectors were giving the North West more thought and attention.

He said people were bringing in smaller nuggets than in recent years but put this down to an increase in metal detector technology sensitivity.

"Every now and then though the larger ones still turn up," he said.

"The largest I have held personally in the last few years was about 120oz."

Meanwhile, veteran prospector, APLA stalwart and retired WA School of Mines lecturer Dr Bob Fagan has never found a nugget but was quick to point out the economic contribution of professional prospectors and their value to the mainstream mining industry.

"I'm not looking for nuggets, I'm looking for the motherlode," he said, explaining he used classic exploration techniques including soil sampling and geophysics to work up the potential of his tenements, before offering them to a mining company for a payment and hopefully a carried interest.

"If prospectors disappeared, there would be a big decrease in potential discoveries being brought to the attention of companies and corporates who can then follow it on successfully," he said.

Many professional prospectors owned and operated expensive equipment and collectively spent millions of dollars each year to maintain their tenements, Fagan added.

He also cited information provided to APLA by a gold refining company in 1996 that showed Western Australia's non-corporate prospectors and miners had produced about 6.6 tonnes of gold in the previous financial year, worth around A$106 million at the time.

Fagan, who is now in his early 70s, became interested in prospecting at the age of 14 while on holiday with a great uncle in New Zealand who took him panning for gold.

"I was fascinated," he said, saying he currently held or had an interest in almost a dozen tenements.

Edwards has been prospecting for about 40 years and said his most memorable find was an 87oz nugget "very early on".

"This piece paid off our first home in Kalgoorlie many years ago," he said.

"I enjoy the challenge and the excitement of good finds."