MOSCOW (Commodity Online) : Attempts to rediscover Russia's lost treasure, the 'Tsarist gold' or 'Kolchak's gold', finally received a morale boost with positive signs from the Baikal exploration.

According to Russian authorities, country's Mir-2 mini-sub has found a number of shiny metal objects on the bottom of Lake Baikal that could be the legendary Tsarist gold lost during the Russian civil war.

Explorers have long been searching for the Tsarist gold that was allegedly carried by Admiral Alexander Kolchak as he fled the advancing Red Army during the Russian civil war after the Bolshevik Revolution.

One legend has it that Kolchak's gold, estimated at 1,600 tons and worth billions of dollars, was lost after his train plunged into the world's deepest freshwater lake from the Krugobaikalskaya line at Cape Polovinny.

Experts believe the pieces may come from the train gold. The remains of the train cars were discovered as part of the MIR submersibles' expedition to the depth of almost 700 meters in the southern part of Lake Baikal.

Some parts of the discovered train were lifted from the bottom.

Intriguingly, it was borne out last year when explorers found fragments of railway carriages and ammunition boxes dating from the civil war. There is, however, considerable skepticism that the gold is in the lake.

But the skeptics were dealt a blow on Monday when the Mir-2 submersible found shiny metal objects resembling gold bullions some 400 meters below the surface near Cape Tolsty.

Explorers attempted to grab hold of them with the mini-sub's manipulator arm but failed to due to the crumbling gravel on the lake's basin.

Kolchak, led the pro-Tsarist White Army against the Bolsheviks after the 1917 October Revolution. After some early success he was arrested and executed by firing squad in January 1920.

Russia