Reuters Niger is interested in having Ashanti Goldfields Company Ltd (AGC) of Ghana help prospect and mine its gold reserves, according to a source at the dirt-poor West African country's ministry of mines and energy.

Mines and Energy Minister Issoufou Assoumane expressed interest during a recent visit to Ghana in seeing Ashanti help develop the sector and the government was prepared to study any proposal that was forthcoming, the source said on Tuesday.

About a dozen gold-bearing sites have been identified in the southwest region of Liptako near Burkina Faso. They include Koma Bangou which has reserves estimated at 20 tonnes. A Canadian company is currently prospecting in the area.

The presence of gold there was confirmed in 1973. Unregulated mining by individuals began in 1993 but the authorities put a stop to it. Ashanti, Ghana's top company, is 43.1 percent owned by British multinational Lonrho, 31.3 percent by the state and the rest by private investors.

It had already agreed to train workers from Niger in mining and maintenance, the source said. Ashanti has already won exploration concessions in Guinea and Mali and is keen to expand its activities in West Africa, where is faces strong competition from South African, American, Canadian and Australian companies.