Alcoa Corp, one of many largest aluminium producers in the USA, is near promoting one other former smelter website to a Bitcoin (BTC) miner, as dormant industrial belongings draw curiosity from knowledge infrastructure operators.
Alcoa CEO Invoice Oplinger informed Bloomberg in an interview that the corporate was nearing an settlement with digital asset agency NYDIG for the Massena East website in upstate New York, with the deal anticipated to shut by mid-year.
The proposed transaction can be one other instance of closed smelters being repurposed for energy-intensive makes use of. In February, Century Aluminum offered its Hawesville facility in Kentucky to TeraWulf, a knowledge centres firm primarily targeted on Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing (HPC) for AI.
Alcoa has been in search of consumers for 10 former smelter websites throughout the US. Bloomberg stated these belongings have grow to be extra enticing as a result of they usually embody present grid connections and important electrical energy capability, making them appropriate for knowledge centres.
Massena East, on the St. Lawrence River, has entry to hydropower from the New York Energy Authority. Alcoa shut the plant in 2014 after it was deemed now not aggressive.
