Jim Rocher over at Bedrock Dreams had some thoughts last year on the more general question of whether it is possible to make a living at small scale prospecting or mining.
"Which brings me to my next point concerning the premise of whether or not you can make a living as a small-scale gold miner here in the Lower 48. What does making a living mean to you, first of all? Does it mean you have no fixed address, no dependents, no bills to pay and simply cruise around to various claims or gold areas mining as you go and sleeping in the bed of your pick up each night? Does it mean you eat cold beans out of cans and minimize your gas expenditures so that you're overhead is also minimized? Does it mean (as an individual) you can work marginal gold ground using a dry washer, sluice box, or highbanker and pull on average a gram or two a day...in season, by the way. Yep, seasons can interfere. The weather is not always gonna cooperate when you need to get the gold. Ma Nature operates on her own terms, not based on yours or your immediate needs, financial or otherwise. You see what I'm getting at here? Sure, you might make a living at small-scale gold mining here in the Lower 48 if you go at it in a similar fashion with little or no overhead, but most of us (probably you as well) have dependents and families and bills and mortgages to pay. So what does making a living at gold mining mean to you? Making two thousand, three thousand, five thousand dollars or more a month by mining worked-out areas or borderline claims with your family on pins and needles never knowing exactly HOW much you'll earn through your small-scale mining activities? If you think you can predict the outcome here and say to yourself I can pay for health insurance for the family, make sure my kids have school clothes and the latest I-Phones, and my wife is happy with her home and new furniture then I'll say this...you ARE delusional. Plain and simple. You are allowing your dreams to impact reality as it is and in the final analysis you're heading for a very rude awakening."
"Listen, I know only too well I really piss people off on this topic because I tend to rain on their grandiose parades by telling them the truth as I KNOW IT based on 36 years of real experience. It's nigh impossible to make a living as a small-scale gold miner here in the Lower 48 these days. Hell, even when virgin ground was still plentiful here and new gold discoveries were waiting around the next bend small-scale mining was a tough proposition. And this was in an era where rules and regulations governing mining activities were essentially non-existent. Interestingly enough, the majority of the e-mails and comments I get regarding this topic come mostly from those with little real field experience as small-scale gold miners and even less overall knowledge. Greenhorns and newbies, many of them. As the Good Lord is my witness, those operating from this premise are the very first to seize on the "making a living" thing and the last to let go of it. You could say they don't know any better and while that's true, the reality of the matter is that most folks don't like being told the truth. They believe what they want to believe, no matter how unrealistic or nonsensical that idea is. Dreams die hard."
http://www.bedrockdreams.com/2016/03/can-i-make-living-gold-mining-revised.html
That said, there are a few professional and semi professional prospectors in Australia, and I've met a few. But it is a very small proportion of the prospecting population, that's for sure!