NYDIG is reportedly close to acquiring Alcoa Corp.’s idled Massena East aluminum smelter in northern New York, a move that could give the digital asset infrastructure firm full control of a major bitcoin mining campus with substantial power capacity. According to Bloomberg, Alcoa is in final negotiations to sell the site, with the transaction expected to close around mid-2026 if the deal is completed. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
A large industrial site already adapted for bitcoin mining
The Massena East facility is no longer operating as an aluminum smelter. Alcoa shut it down in 2014, citing high energy costs and global competition. But the site found a second life in 2018, when Alcoa signed a 10-year lease with Coinmint, which later rebranded its local operation as North Country Colocation Services. Since then, the former industrial complex has functioned as a large-scale bitcoin mining hub.
Bloomberg’s report indicates that NYDIG already has a strategic foothold at the site. In October 2024, the company invested in Coinmint, allowing NYDIG to deploy its own mining equipment there. If the acquisition goes through, NYDIG would move from being an investor and operating participant to becoming the direct owner of the entire complex.
The site is said to have approved power capacity of roughly 435 MW, although current usage is closer to 166 MW. It reportedly houses about 54,000 bitcoin mining machines spread across six former aluminum production lines. Some third-party customers, including Cleanspark, Gryphon, and Bit Digital, have already left the location, potentially creating additional room for NYDIG to reshape operations under a consolidated ownership structure.
Why former smelters are attractive to miners and data center operators
Massena East’s appeal goes beyond the physical buildings. The campus is connected to hydropower supplied through the New York Power Authority, drawing from the Moses-Saunders hydroelectric dam on the St. Lawrence River. That access to established, industrial-grade power infrastructure is one of the main reasons old aluminum smelters have become attractive targets for bitcoin miners and data center developers.
Facilities built for aluminum production were designed to handle continuous, high-voltage industrial loads. In many cases, they retain substations, transmission connections, and heavy-duty electrical systems that would be costly and time-consuming to replicate elsewhere. For companies building digital infrastructure, acquiring such a site can be a faster path to large-scale deployment than waiting years for new grid interconnection approvals.
The Massena property reportedly spans about 1,300 acres and includes the electrical backbone originally constructed for industrial metal production. In the current environment, where access to power has become one of the most important strategic constraints for miners and AI- or data-driven infrastructure developers, existing power-ready sites have taken on renewed value.
Alcoa’s broader divestment strategy
For Alcoa, the proposed sale appears to be part of a wider effort to monetize dormant U.S. smelter assets. The company has been seeking to divest around 10 inactive smelter properties, offering them to data center developers and crypto mining operators that need large industrial footprints and reliable access to grid-scale electricity.
Alcoa CEO Bill Oplinger reportedly confirmed in an April 17, 2026 interview that the company was in final-stage discussions over the site. On the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call a day earlier, he described the potential buyer as an existing partner at the location involved in a data center-related project, a description consistent with Bloomberg’s identification of NYDIG as the buyer.
The company did not provide deal value details. At the same time, Alcoa reported strong first-quarter 2026 results, including $425 million in net income and $595 million in adjusted EBITDA, supported by aluminum prices. That backdrop suggests the transaction is less about financial distress and more about strategic portfolio reshaping around non-core, idled industrial properties.
NYDIG’s expanding mining footprint
If finalized, the Massena East acquisition would fit into NYDIG’s broader strategy of expanding direct exposure to physical bitcoin mining infrastructure. In March 2025, NYDIG agreed to acquire Crusoe Energy’s bitcoin mining business, adding more than 270 MW of operating capacity. Combined with other North American mining assets acquired in 2024, the Massena transaction would deepen NYDIG’s control over sites where it already has operational familiarity.
That matters strategically. Rather than building from scratch, NYDIG appears to be accumulating assets that combine established power access, operational history, and room for scaling. Taking ownership of a facility where it has already deployed miners could also simplify long-term planning, capital allocation, and infrastructure upgrades.
The bitcoin mining sector has increasingly bifurcated between operators that rely on hosting arrangements and those seeking direct ownership of critical infrastructure. Owning the underlying site can provide more flexibility in power procurement, equipment deployment, expansion timing, and integration with broader digital infrastructure strategies.
Employment and local implications
Current mining operations at Massena reportedly employ about 85 full-time workers across Massena and Plattsburgh. The report says employment could rise if NYDIG expands the site under its own ownership. Local authorities have already updated regulations to accommodate cryptocurrency mining and data operations, indicating that the region has been adapting to the site’s transition from heavy industry to digital infrastructure.
That local policy shift is significant. Communities that once depended on traditional manufacturing are increasingly evaluating whether data centers and mining operations can serve as replacement sources of jobs, tax revenue, and industrial activity. While the labor intensity of mining is much lower than that of historic smelting operations, the reuse of an otherwise idle industrial campus can still carry economic and political importance for the surrounding area.
A wider trend in industrial conversion
The reported NYDIG-Alcoa deal also echoes other recent transactions in which legacy industrial properties have been repurposed for digital infrastructure. The article notes that Century Aluminum sold its Hawesville, Kentucky smelter site to Terawulf for about $200 million in cash and stock for digital infrastructure use.
In this context, Massena is part of a growing pattern: former energy-intensive manufacturing sites are being repositioned as homes for bitcoin mining and other high-load computing operations. For operators focused on environmental, social, and governance considerations, the use of existing hydropower-connected infrastructure may also be easier to defend than building new fossil-fuel-dependent generation from scratch.
Whether the NYDIG deal closes on the expected timeline remains to be seen, but the logic behind the transaction is clear. A large, power-rich former smelter with existing mining operations, access to hydropower, and industrial transmission assets is exactly the kind of property that has become increasingly valuable in the race to secure computing infrastructure. If the acquisition is completed, NYDIG would not just be adding another mining location—it would be gaining direct control over a strategically significant power-backed campus in New York.