Sign of life going after gold (7)
I believe the answer is:
auspice
'sign' is the definition.
(auspice is a kind of sign)
'life going after gold' is the wordplay.
'life' becomes 'spice' (spice can mean liveliness or excitement).
'going after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'gold' becomes 'Au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold).
'spice' after 'au' is 'AUSPICE'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for auspice that I've seen before include "Portent" , "future promise" , "Omen - I use cap (anag)" , "sponsorship" , "Sign" .)