HIVE Digital Technologies (TSX-V:HIVE, NASDAQ:HIVE) CFO Darcy Daubaras talked with Proactive about the company’s latest progress in Paraguay.
Daubaras confirmed that HIVE has now completed phase two of its expansion, which includes the commissioning of 200 megawatts of hydro-powered capacity.
The CFO explained that the project in Paraguay is split across two sites, a 200 megawatt facility in Yguazú and a 100 megawatt facility in Valenzuela.
With phase two now complete, the company is moving ahead with phase three, which will add another 100 megawatts of hydropower machines.
Proactive: All right. Welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom. And joining me now is Darcy Daubaras, he is the chief financial officer for HIVE Digital Technologies. Darcy, it's always great to have you along. How are you?
Darcy Daubaras: I'm doing great. Always glad to be here. Good to see you.
Yeah. Good to see you as well. Really interesting news out from the company today, talking about a project that you've been working on for a while. You've completed phase two now of this build out. I'll let you share with the audience what you've done here.
Sure. Absolutely. Thanks. As everybody knows with HIVE, we've done this great expansion into Paraguay, and it's been in two parts. The first one is the 200 megawatt facility in Yguazú and the second is the 100 megawatt facility in Valenzuela. Phase two has now been completed. This is our S21+ hydro. That has been completed, bringing our 200 megawatts fully online and now generating globally.
Now we're generating over 8.5 Bitcoin a day. This is a huge achievement that we've been able to accomplish after we had purchased the facility from one of our competitors. The team down there is incredible, from operations to imports. It's a huge milestone for the company, with staff working 24 hours a day, dealing with software issues, and getting machines online. We're extremely excited and now move on to phase three.
The other part of this is it's renewable hydroelectric power. Being green is what the company is all about, right? That's the most important thing.
Absolutely. Since 2017, and I joined in 2018, we've always been very proud of our green energy focus, whether it's hydroelectricity or geothermal. That was one of the reasons it took us so long to find this gem in Paraguay, where they've got the Western hemisphere's largest hydroelectric dam with excess energy. We were able to tap into that, which helps us and also helps the country of Paraguay.
Having a Bitcoin miner down there allows the government and the energy company to receive US dollars every month. We can’t afford to miss a payment. When they sell to other countries like Brazil or Argentina, sometimes payments are delayed or defaulted. With us, they receive reliable monthly revenue.
Getting the exahash into a certain number by a certain date has always been part of the company’s DNA. You're already over 18 exahash. I know you have a goal of 25 by Thanksgiving. This really allows you to continue with that goal, I imagine.
Absolutely. If we go back a year ago, we didn’t even know about the facility we just completed. We were only planning to add 100 megawatts to reach 18 exahash on time. To deliver this is a huge accomplishment. It also gives us the pathway into phase three, which is going to be another 100 megawatts of hydropower machines.
We are learning from the first 100 megawatts, and we’re very excited to get that installed quickly. Our target is to have everything running by U.S. Thanksgiving. We’re starting installations in the next couple of weeks. All the ASICs and containers have been paid for and are being delivered now, with some coming by boat.
Once the infrastructure is built, the rest is like adding the furniture. With teams plugging in machines and handling any issues, we see a clear path to reaching 25 exahash by U.S. Thanksgiving.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style