CleanSpark (CLSK) spent $25.1 million for a mining facility and bitcoin mining rigs in the U.S. state of Georgia, continuing to take advantage of opportunities that crop up during the market downturn.
The company acquired a 36 megawatt (MW) active facility in the state from Waha Technologies for $16.2 million, along with 3,400 miners in operation at the site for $8.9 million, according to a Tuesday press release.
The mining industry has been consolidating and is expected to continue to do so amid a bear market that is squeezing margins and has miners struggling, some of them due to large debt obligations. "The market has been preparing all summer for consolidation, and we are pleased to be on the acquiring side," CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford said in the press release.
Among other deals for CleanSpark during the downturn was the purchase of contracts for 1,800 rigs in June and the acquisition of 1,000 operating miners in New York in July.
The facility will be CleanSpark's third in Georgia, the other two being in College Park and Norcross, both near Atlanta. The new site in Washington (pop. 4,000) – in northeastern Georgia about 110 miles from Atlanta – is currently operating 340 petahash/second (PH/s) of computing power, and CleanSpark will be adding machines it already has on hand.
The Washington location also has exclusive rights to another 50 MW of power, which is primarily low-carbon, such as nuclear energy, according to the press release.
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Waha Technologies, from which CleanSpark bought the new site, had 16 MW of bitcoin (BTC) mining running at the end of 2021 in the state of New York, with plans to add 84 MW of infrastructure in 2022 across Colorado, Illinois, Georgia and Texas, according to its website.
Washington Mayor Bill deGolian said the town is "thrilled" to have CleanSpark as "this partnership will diversify our local industry, create rural technology jobs, expand our electric customer base and invest in our community."