Bitmain eyes third line, has 24 employees

Bitmain, the cryptocurrency operation which has been mining a different kind of “metal” at the former Alcoa Rockdale Operations potlines, is growing.

“We are running 24/7 and have increased to 24 employees,” Clint Brown, project manager, said.

Officially named the “Dory Creek Project,” Bit-main began mining for bit-coin last summer and hosted an open house in October.

At that time the facility had one line in operation and was using 15 megawatts of energy.

ROUND-THE-CLOCK— Currently the Dory Creek Project has two lines running and is using 50 megawatts of electricity, according to Brown.

The number of antminers (bitcoin mining machines) has increased from 10,800 in October to 18,400 today, according to Brown.

“We have two 12-hour shifts for operations and five-to-eight hour shifts for support personnel, maintenance and facilities,” he said.

Brown said Dory Creek is beginning a design phase for a third line with an eye toward bringing it online mid to late summer.

MORE JOBS—“As we grow our mining farm there will be opportunities for additional employees to be brought on board,” Brown said.

The local Bitmain facility plans to be at 75 megawatts by this summer with plans to increase, he added.

In October, company officials said the eventual goal for Dory Creek was 300 megawatts.

The job of the antminers is to solve complex mathematical puzzles in cyberspace and earn bitcoins, a high-tech cryptocurrency which is seen as the wave of the future.

That takes prodigious amounts of electricity and the interface with the Texas power grid at the former aluminum smelter is what attracted the cryptocurrency mining business to the site.

(A second major cryptocurrency operation, Whinstone, is now constructing a giant facility on Alcoa property to the south of the former potlines.)

The price of bitcoin, which undergoes periodic ups and downs, is slightly higher this week than it was in October when the facility held its open house.

On Monday the price of a bitcoin was $8,756. That compares to $8,211 in October, 2019.