THERE is gold waiting to be found in the North-East, free to anyone with a shovel, a pan and the determination to find it.

But casual hunters should be aware that they are competing for prime locations against international gold panner and former British champion, Mick Gossage.

"There is gold within 30 miles of here," said Mr Gossage from his office at Darlington College of Technology, where he works as the estates and sites service manager.

"But panners don't generally reveal our locations, partly for the protection of landowners, but also because the time and money we invest in finding a good spot means we get quite reluctant to share it with anybody."

Mr Gossage, from Richmond, knows more than most about finding lucrative locations. He has been gold panning since 1987 and secured his place on the British team two years later.

"They say there's an element of luck in finding gold, but that's only partly true," he said. "You need to hunt it down and have the patience and skill to keep at it. Gold is transitory and does its own thing in the river."

Mr Gossage was first introduced to panning by Alf Henderson, a cousin of his late wife, Doreen.

"We went to visit Alf and when we found him sitting in the garden panning gold I had to stop myself laughing," said Mr Gossage. "But he talked me into having a go and I found one very tiny speck."

Mr Henderson taught him the basics and several weeks later Mr Gossage found himself travelling to Scotland with a friend to go panning on a river.

"It was very cold, and I got hypothermia," he said. "But I've been hooked ever since."

Since then Mr Gossage has risen to become one of the country's top gold panners. Having been crowned British champion in 1994, he has competed internationally across Europe and Australia. He is the reigning Welsh champion and chairman of the World Association's rules committee.

His second wife, Lin, is supportive of his hobby, and wears a wedding ring made entirely from gold panned by the couple in 1999 on a trip to Scotland.

"We panned for around nine hours and collected just over 8.5 grams of gold," Mr Gossage remembered. "A friend of ours made the ring for us but it was a long process. Each individual piece of gold had to be separated to make sure it was completely clean, otherwise it cracks."

Mrs Gossage has competed alongside her husband on the British team in the past, but Mr Gossage remains the enthusiast in the family.

"My wife tolerates panning," he said. "But she can do it very well and has stood in before when we've needed her on the team."

Mr Gossage has his sights set on the British Championships, which will be held this year in Dumfries on May 29-30, with the results used to select the British team.

Up to 150 participants will enter the competition, which is divided into categories for children, professionals, beginners and teams.

The top competitors are given 45lb of sand and gravel containing between five and 12 small flecks of gold. They have a maximum of 20 minutes to sift through the material, with the aim of finding all their pieces as quickly as possible. The competitors do not know how many flecks they are looking for, and each piece missed adds a penalty of five minutes on to their time.

"An expert could pan through the lot in 90 seconds, but it would usually take an experienced panner about eight minutes," said Mr Gossage. "It's a fine line trying to get through it as quickly as possible without missing any bits."

Competitors in each of the categories have to pan the same mixture of gravel but the weights and size of the gold differs.

Mr Gossage, who practices for competitions with a trough in his garden, is looking forward to World Championships in Slovakia in August, where he hopes to compete against 22 other nations.

"There is a big difference between competition and river panning," he said. "The competition is there to test your skills against the clock, but river panning it is more for enjoyment. It's a different technique because you first have to identify a place where there is gold to be found, then you have to actually find it."

For Mr Gossage, panning remains primarily a hobby, and he has no plans to capitalise on his skill.

"I could sell my gold, but I don't. The beauty is in the finding of it," he said. "Even if I wanted to, it's not possible to make a living from panning in this country. People always ask me how much the gold is worth, but you can't attribute money to gold. My wife's wedding ring is 21 carat gold but is only worth about £60. Gold itself isn't valuable, it's the people who make the jewellery who make the price."

Gold isn't the only thing Mr Gossage finds when he pans in rivers.

"I've found all sorts of bits and pieces," he said. "Lots of old coins, bits of swords, an old amethyst decoration from a dress, silver nuggets, bits of pottery. You tend to come across a lot of semi-precious stones as well, and we actually throw garnets back into the river because they are such a nuisance and get in the way."

Panning is a relatively simple activity and has evolved little since it was first devised.

"I turn up on a river with exactly the same equipment as the California forty-niners did," said Mr Gossage. "But they turned up on a mule and I turn up in a Ford Mondeo. Just a pan, a shovel and patience, that's all you need."

Mr Gossage plans to continue panning well into the future and is not surprised by the fascination that surrounds his hobby.

"People are attracted to the mystique of gold," he said. "When you find your first bit of gold in a river, there's nothing like it. You could be the first person in the whole of history to see that piece. People often ask how to tell if it's actually gold, but it's easy. When you look at it you know. It just sparkles."