A national decline in mineral exploration spending has prompted the mining industry to renew calls for amendments to tax laws.

Exploration expenditure across the resources industry dropped by 22 per cent compared to the previous quarter.

It is the third consecutive quarterly decrease and there is concern a trend is forming.

The Western Australian Chamber of Minerals and Energy's Shannon Burdeu says a number of incentives need to be considered now to help boost the exploration spend.

"Something we all acknowledge in WA is the increasing cost in doing business that we have here as a state and there are certainly a lot of government initiatives and also company initiatives in order to increase the attractiveness of WA as a place to do business," she said.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) wants a policy introduced that would allow current eligible company losses to be passed back to their Australian share owners in the form of tax credits.

AMEC's Simon Bennison says it would stimulate the greenfield exploration sector, lead to more sites being mined and create future revenue for the government.

"We'll work closely with both the Government and coalition to get their support to make sure they adopt this as a policy position," he said.

"We obviously certainly need this for the future revenue flows that eventually go back to government."