Russian Mining Company will station the equipment for mining on the metalworking plant that is not used since August 2018.
Russia has always had great ambitions, and now this vast country is planning to embrace a significant part of the Bitcoin (BTC) mining industry. To deeper penetrate into this activity, Russian Mining Company (RMC) owned by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Marinichev is planning to build a new facility in the northern province of Karelia.
According to the local news outlet RBC, the equipment for mining will be stationed on the Nadvoitsy Aluminium Smelter, a metalworking plant that is not used since August 2018 against the background of the US sanctions.
Dmitry Marinichev stated:
“Currently, the plant is unprofitable for Rusal, the electricity supplied to it is barely utilised, and people living in the single-industry town near the plant have nowhere to work. Our idea is to convert the plant and sell its computer power as a service, that is to say, offer IT services”.
In 2017, the Russian Mining Company raised more than $43 million in an ICO, which was the record sum for Russian at that time. As Marinichev said, these funds will be spent on financing the RMC’s new facility.
The aim of the Russian Mining Company is to allow Russian miners and investors to compete with China that keeps more than 70 percent of Bitcoin mining under control. When built, the new facility could be responsible for up to 20 percent of Bitcoin’s world hash rate, gaining about $100 million in revenue per month and becoming the largest mining farm. At present, only 10 percent of the world’s BTC production is mined in Russia.
Bitcoin is famous as a highly volatile digital currency, however, this feature does not prevent the community from optimism about Bitcoin mining. Recently, Chinese Bitmain, the world’s largest manufacturer of ASIC chips for Bitcoin mining, launched its 50MW mining farm in Rockdale, Texas, with this capacity expected to be increased by 300MW. The company followed Digital Currency Group-backed Layer1 that raised $50 million to run its own mining business in the same state. This is already the third mining project invested in by Bitmain in the US. Besides, the company is planning to work with the local school district to provide education and training on blockchain technology and mining data center operations.
While Bitmain is expanding its mining activity, its competitor, China-based Canaan, publicly filed for the U.S. Initial Public Offering (IPO). As we have reported, the ASIC mining hardware manufacturer plans to list its shares on Nasdaq under the symbol “CAN” and targets to raise $400 million.
