Interview with Vincent Thurkettle, WGA president

Life is one long, daring adventure...
An Interview with Vincent Thurkettle,
the new President of the World Goldpanning Association

Marcin Maciejak from Goldcentrum.pl (left) with Vincent Thurkettle chatting.
(Photgraph: Krzysztof Maciejak)


GOLDCENTRUM.PL: How long have you been goldprospecting?
VINCENT THURKETTLE: I caught 'goldfever' about 27 years ago and have been a part-time prospector ever since.
G: So what is your main job then?
V: I work in forestry, I am a forest manager.
G: Tell us about the British Goldpanning Association (BGA).
V: The BGA is a networking structure which mainly exists to keep British prospectors in touch with each other. We do all meet once a year at our annual meeting and championships. However, British prospectors guard their secret places jealously so there is not much chance of organising a field trip together!
G: So, do you have a secret place somewhere!?
V: Unfortunately not! To find a new place is a great deal of work and time and sadly I do not have the time to look for a new place at the moment. I have developed a technique of working difficult gold places, I now like to work underwater and have dived into deep river holes and the sea. I use a modified Henderson pump to collect the concentrate and take it to the surface to pan out.
G: A few words about the WGA please.
V: Kauko Launonen has quietly worked, step by step, over his many years as President to make something truly wonderful for us all. The idea itself, the idea of uniting thousands of prospectors from across the entire world, to get them to meet and make friends and have fun, is amazing!

Vincent Thurkettle (right), a new President of World Goldpanning Association and Kauko Launonen (left), President of WGA for 18 last years.

(Photograph: Krzysztof Maciejak)

G: What is your vision for developing the WGA?
V: Kauko succeeded in uniting prospectors from Europe, North America, Australasia, Africa and Asia - maybe it South America's time. There are thousands of gold miners and prospectors working in South American countries and it would be wonderful to have them at the World Championships.

Another thing I would like us to develop is our contact with geologists, historians and other earth scientists. The WGA members have an enormous amount of skill and knowledge and I think we could form good partnerships for cooperation with other professionals. For instance, last year the National Museums of Scotland wanted to get 50 pieces of gold from 22 Scottish locations for their research. So they formed a team of five prospectors to be lead by two geologists and they succeeded!

I find this type of cooperation excellent, many experts are generalists or good at theory, but the WGA members are prospectors and highly skilled at actually finding the gold! Perhaps the most important thing I want to do now is to listen to the prospectors. I really want to know what they think and what they want - this will guide how the WGA is developed. This is so important. Perhaps I will ask a special committee to find out, say, the five things people like the most about the WGA and the main five things they don't like!

I would also like to know if people think we should form a closer relationship with big mining and gold businesses, it could bring a big injection of money. We could, but do we want to and if so, why? But we must always remember that what we have now is good, and while some changes may be needed we must be careful ... we have a saying in England, 'If it is not broken, do not mend it!'.
G: Do you personally want us to work closer with big mining companies?
V: Personally, no.

G: You have been the WGA Treasurer for many years, how do you look back on working with Kauko Launonen, the retiring President?
V: As I said earlier, Kauko has put in a huge amount of work to the WGA. He is a founder member of this organisation and it is his goal that the WGA works well building friendships and cooperation - like that we are sat chatting now! I really enjoyed working with Kauko, he is a good man.
G: During the WGA's annual meeting in Willisau some certain changes were added to the rules, passport control was one of them. Can you explain the reason for this?
V: I know that over the last year or two there have been some problems with people not giving their correct age or name at the competition registration. It is my understanding that using passports was an idea to try out this year to see if it helped with the age and names problem.
G: What happened to the Beginner's category in Switzerland?
V: The Beginners category is not an official competition class and organisers can choose whether they want to include it or not. I have been unhappy with the Beginners category for some years and was pleased to see what the Swiss organisers did this year. The Beginners category is such a strange one and most of our protests come with this category. The Beginners class is where expert panners, who have not competed before, are against tourists who learned to pan yesterday.

I think the experts should be in the Proficient class and we need to do something special for the beginners. Maybe we should run an afternoon 'academy' for beginners at each world championship. We could get expert panners to demonstrate and teach the different techniques to beginners and encourage them to compete in the main competition classes. And, of course, each year Beginners can always enjoy competing in the fun team events.
G: What did you think of the 2003 championships (Willisau)?
V: I greatly enjoyed the 2003 championships, and the excellent weather! I look forward to the Rules Committee's report on this year as each year we learn a little more about how to organise good championships.
G: Did you have any time to prospect the gold-bearing Napf area where the championships were held?
V: Yes, I went prospecting on a few days with friends and family - partly to find gold and partly for the cool river on such hot days! Such stunningly beautiful rivers, we found a little gold too.
G: What message does the new President of the WGA wish to send to the world's prospectors!?
V: Hmmm, that's a big question! Gold is so much - it is adventure and friendship and dreams and wealth and romance and history and, well just living, we are living life not watching life. A famous woman once said, 'Life is one long, daring adventure or nothing at all.' I hope she would have liked us prospectors!
G: Thank you for this interview.

Interviewers: Krzysztof & Marcin Maciejak