Barry Silbert-backed Zcash miner Fortitude brings Nebraska facility online to cut its ZEC production costs

Zcash miner Fortitude, backed by Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert, has brought a new 12-megawatt mining facility in Grand Island, Nebraska, online.

The Nebraska facility is Fortitude's first self-developed mining site and pushes its contracted power portfolio to more than 60 MW across seven locations in four states.

Fortitude said the site's estimated power cost of about $0.045 per KW/h, combined with newer-generation mining equipment, is expected to reduce its mining costs to around $40 from roughly $70 per ZEC.

"The Grand Island Facility is a meaningful step forward in our owned-and-operated power strategy, which we believe gives us the cost discipline and operational flexibility to scale on our own terms," CEO Andrea Childs said in a statement. "We're proud to energize this facility and to start hashing across diversified, high-conviction networks."

The Grand Island site sits between two solar power facilities and next to a substation with excess capacity, according to Fortitude. The company added that the facility will use underutilized electricity while remaining interruptible during peak-demand periods, enabling it to participate in demand response and other grid services.

It comes about a month after Fortitude announced plans to merge with HeartSciences to give the company access to public markets and additional capital to expand. HeartSciences shares were down more than 7% on Tuesday and have given back more than half the gains they posted following the merger announcement.

While many publicly traded crypto firms have embraced (and in some cases then completely distanced themselves from) digital asset treasury strategies, Fortitude has pitched itself as an operating company focused on building and owning mining infrastructure.

Childs previously told The Block that the merger with HeartSciences is intended to fund expansion of its mining operations and owned power portfolio, not to transform it into a crypto accumulation company.

Zcash was down 9% on Tuesday to $460 before recovering slightly to $468, though the privacy-focused cryptocurrency is up more than 1,000% over the past year.

Fortitude remains bullish on the asset despite its volatility, with DCG's founder Silbert previously arguing that Zcash could eventually capture 5% to 10% of bitcoin's market cap.