One of the largest mining centres in the world under the management of Enegix is preparing to launch in Kazakhstan. The 180 MWh data centre will open in September.
According to Dmitry Ivanov, Enegix Sales Director, the mining centre in Ekibastuz, that is located near the Russian border, will house up to 50,000 mining farms. Assuming that Bitmain AntMiner S19 or MicroBT WhatsMiner M30 ASIC miners are installed at the enterprise, the total hash rate of the centre will represent about 4% of the current Bitcoin hash rate.
Enegix already operates two mining facilities, but the new centre will be the largest, employing 160 workers, including security personnel, electricians, and engineers. Construction of the facility, that was initiated in August 2019, cost $23 million.
The mining centre will run on electricity generated by a local coal-fired power plant. Ivanov said it was the cheapest energy source available. Electrical power in Kazakhstan is cheap and generated in abundance. However, most of the surplus electricity is currently exported to neighbouring countries.
According to Ivanov, this gives the country good opportunities to become a global hub for cryptocurrency mining companies. Unlike China, where energy prices vary depending on the seasonal weather, the costs for the mining centre in Ekibastuz remain virtually unchanged throughout the year. While the centre’s clients will be able to mine any cryptocurrency, Enegix expects most of them to mine BTC. According to Ivanov, representatives of BTC.com, Innosilicon, Canaan and ViaBTC have already visited the new centre.
The government of Kazakhstan is meeting mining companies halfway. Last December, local legislatures introduced a bill that would make cryptocurrency mining tax-free if mined coins were not exchanged for fiat money. In addition, in June it became known that Kazakhstan received investments of $ 201.7 million from mining enterprises and plans to attract another $ 738.4 million from large miners in the next three years.
