ABIDJAN, Sep 02, 1997

Britain's Cluff Mining Limited has opened a regional office in Ghana's capital Accra to manage its growing number of exploration permits in West Africa, the company said in an Ivorian newspaper advertisement on Tuesday.

The Ghana office would be run under the name of Cluff Mining (West Africa) Limited and cover existing subsidiary offices in neighbouring Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, said the notice in the government daily Fraternite Matin.

Cluff Mining Limited was set up in 1996 after the take-over of Cluff Resources by Ghana's mining giant Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited

Ivory Coast and Ghana share an underlying gold-bearing Birimian greenstone geology with other expanding West African gold producers such as Mali.

Cluff Mining Limited started work on three Ivorian permits in April and is negotiating a joint venture with Ivory Coast's Compagnie Miniere de Cote d'Ivoire for a fourth.

It has other offices outside the region in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ashanti, the region's largest gold producer, has also expressed interest in gold exploration in Ivory Coast.