Binn

Binn (Walser German: Bìi) is a municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The Binn Valley is known for its rich mineral deposits, some types of which are unique to the area. The notable Lengenbach Quarry is in Binn. Binn was first mentioned in 1297 as Buen, Buyn, Bun, and Bondolun. Binn has an area, , of . Of this area, 25.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 16.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and 57.0% is unproductive land. This village in the Swiss Alps is located at an elevation of . It consists of the village of Schmidigehischere and the hamlets of Ze Binne, Wilere, Giesse and Fäld as well as part of the site of Heiligkreuz in the Leng Valley. Geisspfadsee and Züesee are located in the municipality. The Lengenbach Quarry (LGB) is noted among the mineralogical community for its unusual sulfosalt specimens. The mineralogy has been studied for nearly 200 years. Lengenbach is the type locality for 29 minerals. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, issuant from Coupeaux Vert a triple (papal) Cross Or between in Chief two Greek Crosses of the same. Binn has a population () of . , 2.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -17.4%. It has changed at a rate of -22.1% due to migration and at a rate of 2.9% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks German (152 or 98.1%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (2 or 1.3%) and French is the third (1 or 0.6%). the gender distribution of the population was 52.1% male and 47.9% female. The population was made up of 72 Swiss men (50.7% of the population) and 2 (1.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 66 Swiss women (46.5%) and 2 (1.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 85 or about 54.8% were born in Binn and lived there in 2000. There were 32 or 20.6% who were born in the same canton, while 26 or 16.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 10 or 6.