Argo Blockchain, a cryptocurrency mining company, plans to set up a data centre in West Texas.
Argo announced on Twitter on May 5 that mining activities at its Helios plant in Dickens County, Texas, would resume next week. The news comes more than a year after the mining company acquired a 320-acre plot of land to build the facility, with the 200-megawatt data centre set to open in July 2021.
Argo CEO Peter Wall said that the facility was built in Dickens County due to the company’s goal of “mining Bitcoin in the most eco-friendly manner feasible.” As of August 2021, the company’s crypto activities were “climate positive” for certain types of greenhouse gas emissions, with a goal of ultimately being carbon neutral.
“A lot of [the available power] is somewhat stranded, meaning there is not a lot of local demand or local load to use that power, so we felt that this was a strong opportunity to help stabilize the grid,” said Wall.
The mining facility will be equipped with 20,000 Bitmain S19J Pro rigs, which will be installed and operational in stages between May and October, according to Argo. Argo’s first data centre power capacity will be 200 MW, with access to an additional 600 MW in the following years. The company forecasts a hash rate of 5.5 exahashes per second by the end of 2022, with the extra power capacity added afterwards producing 20 EH/s.
According to a regulatory filing by Argo in November 2021, the overall cost of the data centre has been estimated to be between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. The mining company also acquired a $25 million loan arrangement with Galaxy Digital LP in September 2021, using its Bitcoin (BTC) as collateral, and said that it will finance a portion of the facility with a $57.5 million senior note issue.
