Report: NYDIG Close to Buying Alcoa’s Massena New York Smelter Site for Bitcoin Mining
Key Takeaways:
According to a recent report, Alcoa is in advanced talks to sell its Massena East production site to NYDIG, with the deal expected to close in mid-2026. The 435MW New York facility already hosts ~54,000. bitcoin Miners and NYDIG took it share by Coinmint there in October 2024. NYDIG's purchase follows its March 2025 deal to buy Crusoe Energy. Bitcoin mining Business, increasing the capacity of more than 270 megawatts.
NYDIG eyes full control of Massena Bitcoin mining Campus
The deal will transfer roughly 435MW of hydropower-connected yard across the St. Lawrence River to NYDIG, which is already strategic. share In the existing site Bitcoin mining Operation. Alcoa CEO Bill Oplinger confirmed the interview on April 17, 2026, according to a report by Bloomberg's Jacob Lorinck.
Oplinger said the company expects the transaction to close around the middle of the year. Massena East facility as a Bitcoin mining Campus Since 2018, Alcoa has signed a 10-year lease with Coinmint, later rebranding its local operations as North Country Colocation Services. NYDIG invested in Coinmint in October 2024, giving it the ability to deploy its own miners on the site.
The campus is reported to house about 166 megawatts of the authorized capacity of 435 megawatts and about 54,000 homes. Bitcoin mining units on six former aluminum smelting lines. Several third-party clients have left the site, including Cleanspark, Gryphon and Bit Digital.
Alcoa did not disclose financial terms. During its Q1 2026 earnings call on April 16, Opplinger identified the prospective buyer as a former partner working on a data center project, consistent with Bloomberg's identification of NYDIG as the buyer.
Massena's eastern site collects power from the New York Power Authority's Moses-Saunders hydroelectric power plant across the St. Lawrence River. Bitcoin Miners and data center operators have targeted the former aluminum smelters because the facilities were built for continuous and high-voltage industrial loads, leaving behind specialized substations and transmission lines that would outlast years of new grid connections.
Alcoa idled Massena East in 2014, citing high energy costs and international competition. The property covers approximately 1,300 acres and includes a complete electrical infrastructure designed for industrial grade aluminum production.
The sale is part of Alcoa's plan to divest about 10 US smelter sites. Oplinger said the company has been offering these assets to data center developers and Crypto Miners seeking large, pre-wired industrial footprints with utility-scale grid access.
NYDIG has steadily moved to expand its physical bitcoin mining capacity. In the year In March 2025, the company reached an agreement to acquire Crusoe Energy's bitcoin mining business, which has a capacity of more than 270 megawatts. In the year Combined with other North American mining assets acquired in 2024, the purchase of Massena East gives NYDIG direct ownership of a site it has been operating for more than a year.
Alcoa reported strong first-quarter 2026 earnings alongside news of the deal, with net income of $425 million and adjusted EBITDA of $595 million driven by aluminum prices.
The mining operation in Massena employs approximately 85 full-time workers in Massena and Plattsburgh. While the NYDIG-owned expansion is expected to increase that workforce, the city of Massena has already updated local regulations to accommodate cryptocurrency and data mining operations.
The deal follows a similar move by Century Aluminum, which sold its Hawesville, Kentucky smelter to Teraulf for $200 million in cash and digital infrastructure. The Massena site for bitcoin mining, the construction of a new power plant, and the diversion of existing hydropower capacity to run a carbon-free digital infrastructure is a list that has attracted the interest of ESG-focused operators.
