Rusal's Nadvoitsy aluminum plant, the world's second-largest aluminum company, will reopen its old site, but instead of continuing its aluminum production, it will be transformed into a "bitcoin mine," local media RBC reported.

The office of foreign assets control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on rusal in April 2018. At the time, the Treasury Department sanctioned rusal by referring to its majority shareholder, Oleg Deripaska, as a "designated Russian oligarch." The Nadvoitsy aluminum plant, once one of Russia's largest metal manufacturing plants, has been closed due to the loss of American customers as a result of the sanctions.

Rusal then agreed to lease part of the Nadvoitsy aluminium plant to Russian mining company (RMC). "Right now, the plant is unprofitable for rusal," says RMC founder Dmitry Marinichev. "there is little use of the electricity provided to it, and people living in a single industrial town near the plant have nowhere to go." Explaining the goal of the new cryptocurrency joint venture, he added: "the idea is to change the use of factories and sell computing power."

RMC reportedly plans to install cryptocurrency miners in its factories and use their cheap power to turn them into giant bitcoin mines, focusing on extracting 20 percent of the world's BTCS. RBC also reported that Russia wants the mine to generate $100 million a month in revenue and create an ecosystem for miners and investors to challenge China's dominance of the global bitcoin mining industry. China currently controls 70 per cent of the global bitcoin mining market.

While the price of bitcoin has been volatile for some time, investor interest in mining for cryptocurrencies has increased, leading several companies to start building large mines. Just recently, Bitmain informed the public of its plans to build a major mining facility in the United States. In addition, other investors have teamed up to inject $50 million into the development of another major cryptocurrency mining facility. (From Alu)