The largest U.S. aluminum producer, Alcoa, is close to selling its vacant Massena East smelter in upstate New York to bitcoin firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) as it offloads dormant assets and eases demand for energy-ready industrial sites.
The company’s CEO, Bill Oplinger, said the company is in advanced negotiations and expects the deal to close “in the middle of this year,” Bloomberg reports.
The square, located along St. Lawrence River, has been idle since 2014 when Alcoa shut it down due to high operating costs and global competition.
The appeal lies in the power of the place, not the metal itself. Aluminum smelters are built to run around the clock, drawing large amounts of electricity through dedicated substations and transmission lines. When they close, that infrastructure remains.
For bitcoin miners and data center developers, this can shave years off the time required to secure network access.
Massena East also has access to hydropower from the New York Power Authority, a draw for companies seeking low-cost, carbon-free energy.
The agreement reflects a broader shift. Earlier this year, Century Aluminum sold a smelter in Kentucky to TeraWulf ( WULF ), which plans to build a digital infrastructure campus supporting high-performance computing and artificial intelligence.
