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Tim Alper
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Tim Alper
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Power providers in the Siberian crypto mining hotspot of Irkutsk have discovered an illegal mining “farm” operating on their own property.
The Irkutsk Region Prosecutor-General’s Office posted on VK, explaining that an unnamed Irkutsk-based “electric grid supply organization” was “found illegally providing a plot of land” to crypto miners.
Siberian Power Grid Company ‘Leased Land to Crypto Miners’
The prosecutors explained that the state had set aside the plot to help provide “public utilities.”
Instead, however, the unnamed company leased the land to crypto miners, who built a “mining farm” on the property.
The office said that it had fined the power provider 330 thousand rubles (over $3,120) and censured the firm.
Prosecutors have also opened an administrative case against the power company.
Russia’s Illegal Mining Problem
The case appears to illustrate not only the ongoing popularity of crypto mining in Russia, but also the enormity of the challenge to eliminate illegal mining.
Siberia has struggled with power problems in the winter months in recent years, with crypto miners repeatedly blamed.
Miners favor the low operating costs of crypto mining farms in Siberia. They also favor the area’s cheap power costs and famously low winter temperatures, which help reduce cooling fees.
However, this has resulted in power outages and grid instability in Irkutsk and nearby regions.
Moscow has responded by issuing temporary crypto mining bans in several Siberian regions.
The bans have done little to stop illegal crypto mining in Siberia, however, with Irkutsk authorities attempting to crack down on offenders.
South, East Siberia Mining Alternatives?
Some appear to believe that they can find a solution that would satisfy both power companies and Russian crypto miners outside Southern and Eastern Siberia.
The Tyumen-based news outlet 72.ru reported that developers in Zavodoukovsk have put a Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm housed on a 20-acre plot of land up for sale.
The plot comprises a 550 sqm building with a 150 kWh power supply and 40 ASIC mining rigs.
In its current state, the farm mines “BTC 0.26600499 per month,” the developer explained.
The vendor said they were selling the farm for around $95,000, and claimed that miners could expect to pay around $0.02 per kW of power.
FederalPress wrote that the vendor appears to be “assembling ready-made crypto mining facilities for future ‘farmers.’”
The outlet noted that the same vendor appears to have listed another farm for sale at around $143,000.
New Hotspots
And a third listing from the same vendor appears to be located within Tyumen “city limits.” Here, prospective crypto miners were told that they could enjoy power fees of “3.99 rubles ($0.038) per kW/hour, which is significantly lower than the rates offered to other companies.”
Other Russian regions looking to reinvent themselves as crypto mining hotspots include the Komi Republic.
In September this year, the Komi governor Vladimir Uyba said the first two of 15 new data centers were now being built in Mikun and Sindor.
Media reports also claim that the majority state-owned gas giant Gazprom’s crypto mining-focused subsidiary is building a 5,000-rig crypto mining center in the historic city of Veliky Novgorod, some 570km northwest of Moscow.
Sources claim this facility will reach full capacity by 2028, and note that Gazprom has provided its crypto mining arm with a $452.4 million budget.
Some Russian firms are still focusing their efforts on Eastern Siberia, however. These include BitRiver, Russia’s biggest industrial crypto mining firm, which is building a new 100MW data center in Buryatia.
Officials say the new center will be “the largest data center in the Republic of Buryatia and the Far Eastern Federal District.”
