What did you miss?
Countryfile guest interviewee Leon Kirk discussed his lifelong passion for gold-panning on the latest episode.
While speaking to presenter Sean Fletcher beside a river just outside the Scottish village of Wanlockhead, the professional digger displayed some of his recent findings, one of which Leon valued at approximately £15,000 should he choose to put it up for sale.
He then batted away the notion, comparing it to selling his “children”.
What, how and why?
Asked what originally brought him to the lucrative world of gold-panning, which involves extracting the precious metal from what’s dubbed a ‘placer deposit’ – or accumulation of valuable minerals – Leon claimed he “must’ve been born” with the bug.
“I think it’s in your DNA, you know?” he told Sean from a purposefully undisclosed location. “I’ve always had this thing about treasure. It’s always a surprise when you come to the river, you could find a nugget; more than likely a flake, a tiny little bit of gold, but that’s the whole fun of it all.”
Taking the largest chunk from his pan and holding it up, Leon then claimed it’s “very difficult” to put a price on gold, especially this “one-off”.
“Very few people would ever sell it in the first place, but that, if it went up for sale it would command a price of probably around £15,000,” he said, which led Sean to question why he’d keep it.
“When you find a nugget [that has] something special about it, there’s an attachment, they’re like children. Would you sell your children?” chuckled the pro. “This is rare, this is as rare as it comes”.
What else happened on Countryfile?
During an earlier segment of Sunday’s Countryfile, Sean visited the lead-rich Lochnell Mine, which was active for 150 years before ceasing operations in 1860.
Countryfile airs Sundays on BBC One.