Prospectors in Western Australia say they are being pressured into signing "access deeds" by a large Chinese pastoral company they claim is trying to create delays with unnecessary legal objections.

Zenith Australia Investment Holdings has lodged dozens of objections in the state's Warden's Court over concerns about biosecurity, heritage management and infrastructure maintenance.

The company is the local arm of Shanghai CRED, the company that last year jointly bought the S. Kidman and Co cattle empire with multi-billionaire mining magnate Gina Reinhart.

Zenith says it does not want to prevent mining activity and will withdraw the objections once agreements with individuals are signed.

Goldfields prospector Alexander Stead said small mining operators are being forced to sign a contract or else face delays through legal action in the WA Warden's Court.

Zenith does not currently own the station, but is presently in negotiations to take ownership of the Clover Downs pastoral lease where Mr Stead has a mining tenement.

The company says it has an arrangement with the current owners of Clover Downs to begin negotiations with tenement holders on the property.

It says in order to protect biosecurity, heritage and maintain infrastructure, prospectors and small miners must sign contracts which include the payment of an "administration cost" of $126.76.

Mr Stead said the 17-page contract sent to him by Zenith Australia, seen by the ABC, describes itself as an "access deed" and asks him to take out his own public liability insurance policy.

He said the move is putting pressure on small miners who cannot afford to fight it.

"It's happening to a lot of people around here. A lot of prospectors don't want to deal with it so they're signing the agreement and doing that," he said.

"Basically holding you to ransom. That if you're not going to pay this money to them, and you're not going to take liability for this livestock if something dies on your land, then they're not going to raise their objection."

Prospectors being held 'to ransom'

Les Lowe, president of the Amalgamated Prospectors and Lease Holders Association, the peak body for prospectors, said the issue is affecting members' rights.

"It literally appears to me to be trying to transfer obligation, transfer rights from the mining industry and prospectors and junior explorers, over to the pastoral industry," Mr Lowe said.

"It almost seems as if the pastoral industry is trying to overwrite or overrun the Mining Act."

Prospector Alex Stead has a mining tenement in the Clover Downs, where Zenith is in talks to take ownership. ( ABC News: Jarrod Lucas )

Mr Lowe said the pastoralists' practice is widespread across the industry and causing problems for his members.

"It's across the whole spectrum of our members' rights in WA that we are seeing a major increase in 'pastoral activism', is what I'd call it," he said.

"In the last two years, we've seen an increase in the mining Warden's Court from pastoralists to the grounds of tenement applications."

Prospector Alexander Stead is standing his ground.

"Their agreement is quite long-winded and it calls itself an access deed. But it's not really an access deed when you read through it," he said.

"When you're a small-time prospector you're just driving out, you're waving a metal detector and coming back again. You're not doing vast damage or anything that would require high levels of cover."

"I'm not going to sign this agreement. I basically consider it to be on the verge of extortion, using the Mining Act to basically misuse it."

A spokesperson for Zenith declined to comment.