By Scott Roblin

Hut 8 jobs announcement welcome news for Medicine Hat Chamber

Mar 21, 2018 | 5:06 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – It’s new territory for the Medicine Hat & District Chamber of Commerce, but it’s jumping into the world of cryptocurrency with both feet.

This after a meeting on Tuesday with Hut 8, who announced this week that it will be investing $100 million into a Bitcoin mining operation next to the Box Springs power plant.

The facility will create 100 construction jobs and 42 full-time positions, with an emphasis on hiring local.

That’s something that Chamber First Vice-President Sarah MacKenzie said is a great move for the community.

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“They said that they will be putting a resume box on site, because they think people will be driving up there to check it out and hope that they leave their resumes,” said McKenzie. “It doesn’t get more local than that.”

This will be Hut 8’s second data mining centre in Alberta, as they currently operate a similar centre out of 17 Sea-Can containers in Drumheller.

Town of Drumheller CAO Darryl Drohomerski said since the opening of their cryptocurrency operation, they’ve enjoyed a quiet but productive relationship with Hut 8.

“There was a lot of activity obviously when the construction went on,” said Drohomerski. “But once everything was set up, it’s been [a] very innocuous business model.”

Hut 8 is selecting their locations with the cheapest electricity, as it takes plenty of power to run the computers that mine for Bitcoin.

Partnering with ATCO in Drumheller, Drohomerski said they haven’t run into any problems with their electrical supply.

He added more businesses are now asking about how they can take advantage of the town’s excess power.

“Now we see other companies coming to Drumheller or wanting to come to Drumheller, they want to know sort of what’s left for them as far as electrical capacity and things like that.”

The Medicine Hat project will be larger however, using 42 megawatts of electricity compared to 18 megawatts in Drumheller.

Medicine Hat also has a greater capacity at 245 megawatts to supply the city, with an average usage of 120 megawatts during peak hours in March.

Hut 8 Interim CEO Sean Clark said they’ll use Drumheller as a guide, but can adjust the layout.

“We’re basically creating a same-store model where that site… we learned a lot, we recorded and learned from our mistakes,” said Clark. “And, now we can implement better, faster, just more efficient ways to do it here.”

Hiring for the Medicine Hat project has already started, while Drumheller staff are expected to assist in training the new employees over the coming months.

MacKenzie is hoping that this announcement will lead to more technology-based companies considering Medicine Hat as a viable option.

“The fact that they chose Medicine Hat as their flagship location is exciting because we have the ability now to attract other businesses that are maybe like-minded, or for other businesses to see that Medicine Hat is a great place to locate.”

Construction on the Box Springs site is already underway, with a planned opening set for sometime in September.