Micham program confirms Swiss potential for gold

The joke goes that the only gold you are going to find in Switzerland is in the form of bullion, buried deep underneath the Zurich banks. So most people must think, since despite the abundance of outcrop throughout the Swiss Alps, little gold exploration has ever been carried out. But grassroots work by Micham Exploration Inc. could very likely change all of that.

“I think our second hole proves that there is indeed significant gold potential in Switzerland,” says David Bell, exploration manager and a director of Micham. That hole, drilled to follow up one of many geochemical anomalies on the property, returned three mineralized sections:

Section Width Grade

(ft) (ft) (oz/ton) 255.2-265.4 10.2 0.173 819.4-828.1 8.7 0.115 881.9-891.7 9.8 0.169

The original showing on the property was discovered in 1983 by Karl Naert of Narex International. He took a sample from a road cut which appeared to be highly silicified, carbonitized and sericitized with finely disseminated sulphides. It graded 0.054 oz gold per ton. He eventually negotiated 125 sq km of exploration licences with a number of local communes (which hold the mineral rights). Micham has optioned the property from Narex, and can earn an 80% interest by spending $2 million(US) before 1991.

Mr. Naert did not know at the time of the discovery, which was made on the upper reaches of the mighty Rhein river, that the area had a placer mining history going back to at least the 14th century, and as recently as the 1870s there were more than 100 miners active in the area. Even today there are a number of hobby miners, some of them panning out 10-12 grams of gold on a good weekend just downstream from the Micham project (the Rhein is so small at that point it can be walked across in places).

What Micham finds appealing about the project is that despite the abundance of infrastructure in the area it is basically virgin territory. Work to date has outlined three parallel anomalous horizons, each at least 3 km in length and ranging in width from 40-300 ft, and located about 1,000 ft apart. The mineralization has been traced intermittently for 15 km along the valley. Surface grab samples from the original mapping graded as high as 0.28 oz gold per ton.

Micham is a Vancouver-based company that was formed in 1981 by three principals of the original Corona Resources: Nell Dragovan, who purchased the original Hemlo property off prospectors John Larche and Don McKinnon; Donald Moore, a director of Corona and now president of Micham; and David Bell, the geologist credited with the Hemlo discovery.

Micham currently has two drill rigs on the property completing the 7,500 ft program, and Mr Moore tells The Northern Miner the company intends to follow up immediately with a second phase of drilling. Five widely spaced holes have been completed to date with at least another five planned in this phase. Approximately 350 samples are on their way to Canada for assay, with more to follow as on-site logging continues.

Through Narex, Micham has developed a good working relationship with the local population (the local press refers to them as goldschnuflers), which has a chronically high unemployment rate. Most of the local economy is derived from farming and tourism, but the mayor of Disentis has indicated the town would like to develop some industry which is less seasonal in nature, such as the hydro dams which have been constructed on a number of rivers in the area.