IOTL, Russia did not begin to extract mineral wealth from her far eastern regions until Stalin and his forced labor gulags started digging it up at an extraordinarily high human cost. What if there was earlier awareness in Russia of the immense mineral wealth present in Siberia/Far East, particularly in the Kolyma region? This region, rich in gold and other precious metals, produced a lot of gold for the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule.
But is there any particular reason this wealth could not have been known and exploited earlier? Suppose that, in 1890 (or even earlier), a geologist surveys the region and discovers the gold and other metals of Kolyma. Could this have triggered a Russian Gold Rush, analogous to the Klondike rush in North America? It's not much all that much colder than the Yukon. Could this have provided significant wealth to the Tsar's government? How would it have affected Russia's relations with the rest of the world? With Great Britain? Would Japan have tried to take the region during the Russo-Japanese War?
But is there any particular reason this wealth could not have been known and exploited earlier? Suppose that, in 1890 (or even earlier), a geologist surveys the region and discovers the gold and other metals of Kolyma. Could this have triggered a Russian Gold Rush, analogous to the Klondike rush in North America? It's not much all that much colder than the Yukon. Could this have provided significant wealth to the Tsar's government? How would it have affected Russia's relations with the rest of the world? With Great Britain? Would Japan have tried to take the region during the Russo-Japanese War?