Middlemen initially took gold to cave but turned around to leave for safety reasons (8)
I believe the answer is:
evacuate
'turned around to leave for safety reasons' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'middlemen initially took gold to cave' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'took' could be 'ate' (eating is a kind of taking) and 'ate' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'cave' is 'evac' which is within the answer.
A single letter 'u' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'but' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for evacuate that I've seen before include "Get out of" , "Move people from their homes" , "Send people away from dangerous place" , "rescue from bad situation" , "In wartime, remove civilians from cities to safety of countryside" .)