INDUSTRIAL gold production will begin in Niger from 2001, according to Burkina Faso’s minister of mines, who estimates that 90 tons of the precious metal lie in three sites in the Komabandou zone, near the borders with Mali. International companies have been prospecting over the last four years, Mai Manga Boukar said on Thursday. Oil exploration continues in the north, and east where France’s Elf and the US company Esso hope to locate a billion barrels of reserves.The minister said these projects should help the Niger economy, badly hit by the fall of the price of uranium on the world market. Uranium delivered 80% of the country’s export earnings from 1971 to 1979.