Argo Blockchain completes land acquisition for Texas mining facility

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Argo Blockchain (LSE: ARB) has completed the purchase of 320 acres of land in West Texas where it intends to put up a 200 megawatts block reward mining facility.

The London Stock Exchange listed firm has confirmed its plan to put up the facility last month. As CoinGeek reported, it entered into a non-binding letter of intent with New York-based DPN LLC to purchase the land for $17.5 million. $5 million was to be payable upfront in share allocation to DPN shareholders, with $12.5 million payable if certain milestones are met.

Argo has now completed the purchase, it revealed in a press release.

“The acquisition of DPN LLC gives Argo access to up to 800-megawatts of electrical power, where Argo intends to build a new 200MW mining facility over the next 12 months. This facility will provide Argo with what it believes are some of the lowest electricity rates in the world, the majority of which is from renewable sources,” it stated.

CEO Peter Wall described the purchase as a significant milestone for the firm. “It not only gives us greater control over our mining operations but also the ability to meaningfully expand our mining capacity on a large scale. We now have access to some of what we believe is the cheapest renewable energy worldwide, in a location where innovation in new technologies is encouraged and incentivized,” he stated.

Argo becomes the latest block reward miner to set up shop in Texas. The state has been attracting the mining industry due to its cheap power and friendly regulations. The lone star state is America’s largest producer of wind power, generating three times as much power as second-place Iowa and four times as much as California. It has more than 10,000 wind turbines.

In addition, the state has been working towards being the most regulatory-friendly state for blockchain and digital currencies.

This has attracted some of the world’s largest block reward mining companies. Bitmain set up an operation in East Texas in 2019, with German firm Northern Data AG following suit in the same year. Layer1, which has in the past year become mired in power struggles between the founders, also operates a Texas facility.

See also: TAAL’s Jerry Chan presentation at CoinGeek Live, The Shift from Bitcoin “Miners” to “Transaction Processors”