Crossword Genius

Information about earlier shining (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

golden

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'shining' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'information about earlier' is the wordplay.
'information' becomes 'gen' (gen can informally mean information).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'earlier' becomes 'old' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'gen' going around 'old' is 'GOLDEN'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for golden that I've seen before include "Very favourable (opportunity); aureate" , "Brilliant" , "With sixteen across Apple variety" , "Valuable" , "Gilded, pale yellow" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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