Leave heartless boy something valuable (4)

I believe the answer is:

gold

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'valuable' is the definition.
(I know that gold is a type of precious metal)

'leave heartless boy' is the wordplay.
'leave' becomes 'go' (to go is to depart or leave).
'heartless' means to remove the middle letters.
'boy' becomes 'lad' (informal term for boy).
'lad' with its middle taken out is 'ld'.
'go'+'ld'='GOLD'

'something' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for gold that I've seen before include "Colour of archery target's centre" , "Thin sheet of precious metal" , "Element (Au)" , "first gets this?" , "Deep yellow" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.