Alcoa, the largest aluminum producer in the United States, is about to sell its idle Massena East smelter in upstate New York to Bitcoin firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), in a bid to offload dormant assets and tap demand for energy-ready industrial sites.
CEO Bill Oplinger said the company is in advanced talks and expects the deal to close “by the middle of this year,” Bloomberg reported.
The plant, located along the St. Lawrence River, has been idle since Alcoa closed it in 2014 due to high operating costs and global competition.
The attraction lies in the strength of the site, not the metal itself. Aluminum smelters operate around the clock, drawing large amounts of electricity through dedicated substations and transmission lines. When they shut down, that infrastructure remained.
For Bitcoin miners and data center developers, this could shorten the time needed to secure access to the grid.
Massena East also has access to hydroelectric power from the New York Power Authority, which is attractive to companies looking for low-cost and carbon-free energy.
The deal reflects a broader shift. Earlier this year, Century Aluminum sold a Kentucky smelter to TeraWulf (WULF), which plans to build a digital infrastructure campus supporting high-performance computing and artificial intelligence.
