Villagers almost anywhere in the world would be celebrating if more than a billion dollars of gold was found under them. But not in Switzerland.
It was not a question many villagers will ever have to face – and theirs was an answer that even fewer would probably give.
But when residents of a remote Alpine valley were offered a share of a fortune that would have brought them tens of millions of pounds, they said “No”.
Swiss banks may be bulging with gold ingots, but the inhabitants of a cluster of villages in the Medel Valley have shown themselves less than keen to dig the stuff out of their own mountains.
After months of anguished debate, the villagers voted in a referendum last week to stop a Canadian mining company prospecting for the estimated $1.2 billion worth of gold ore believed to be lie in seams beneath the surrounding snow-capped mountains.
It would have been Switzerland’s first gold mine and one of only a handful in Europe but locals ran scared of the prospect of turning their valley into a miniature version of the Klondike.
In doing so they rejected a windfall of around 40 million Swiss francs (£27 million) over the next 10 years – a veritable bonanza for the 450 inhabitants of the picturesque valley.
By Nick Squires, Curaglia
8:00AM BST 08 Apr 2012
