The miner signed a deal to host up to 32 megawatts of mining machines, enough to power about 10,000 rigs.

Bitcoin mining company Argo Blockchain’s (ARB) self-mining margin narrowed to 20% in August as soaring natural gas prices increased the cost of energy at its Helios facility in Texas, the firm said Friday.

Rampant energy costs at the facility, which uses electricity bought on the spot market, have eaten into profitability this year. The margin, which stood as high as 74% in January, had sunk to 37% by July. The company is trying to secure a long-term, fixed-price power purchasing agreement to lower its exposure to volatility in energy markets.

“Spot power prices in West Texas averaged nearly $0.09 per kWh, which is nearly three times the average price during the month of August in prior years,” Argo said.

Mining analyst Wolfie Zhao noted on Twitter that under current market conditions, gross margins for even some of the newest mining machines have dropped. According to his calculations, Bitmain Antminer S19Pro and S19XP are down to 44% and 23% respectively.

Argo also signed an agreement to host up to 32 megawatts of mining machines, around 10,000, according to the statement. The London-based company will receive a quarter of the net profit from mining bitcoin with those machines. Mining firms that don’t own and operate their own infrastructure can have their machines hosted at a facility run by a different company.

Argo has been installing its own miners at Helios since it opened in April, but reduced its expectations for its own hashrate, or computing power on the bitcoin network, for the rest of the year.

The company’s shares had gained 9.8% on the London Stock Exchange as of 8:49 UTC.

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Bitcoin was priced in the $40,000 range for much of Q1 compared with nearly $60,000 in the same period a year earlier.

Argo Blockchain (ARB) reported net income of £1.6 million ($2.1 million) in Q1, a drop of over 90% compared with the corresponding quarter a year earlier.

Argo cited, among other factors, a change in fair value of digital currencies, with bitcoin priced in the $40,000 range for much of Q1 compared with nearly $60,000 in the same period a year earlier.

The London-based and only bitcoin miner listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) saw its revenue increase by 9% from a year ago to £14.9 million. This is attributed to a growth in the firm’s hashrate throughout 2021, Argo announced Tuesday.

Argo mined 470 bitcoin and bitcoin equivalents compared to 387 in the same period a year ago.

As of the end of Q1, Argo was hodling 2,700 bitcoin and bitcoin equivalents.

Argo has in recent weeks borrowed $70.6 million from a New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) subsidiary to purchase mining equipment for its Helios facility in Texas which would operate at 200 megawatts with the potential to be ramped up to 800 MW.

Shares in ARB on the LSE were up nearly 3% on the day at the time of writing.

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The crypto miner didn’t say what capacity the mine would operate at when it starts production.

Crypto miner Argo Blockchain (ARB) plans to start operations at its flagship facility in Texas next week, the company said in a Thursday filing with the London Stock Exchange.

Argo shares jumped as much as 12% to 67.5 pence ($0.84) in London trading as of 8:55 UTC.

Helios is set to reach 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity capacity in its first phase of operation, which will increase Argo’s computing power by 243% to 5.5 exahash per second (EH/s), the filing said. In its second phase, Helios will utilize an additional 600MW to reach 20 EH/s.

Argo declined to specify the day the mine will start operating and at what capacity. “Much of that information has to come through market disclosure,” a spokesperson said.

Delivery and installation of the 20,000 Bitmain S19J Pro mining machines it bought in September 2021 has started, it said. Some units are yet to be delivered and are expected to arrive by October.

Installation of another batch of Bitmain S19J Pro mining rigs it obtained through a machine swap with Core Scientific has started and will continue through July, the filing said.

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The loan brings Argo’s debt to build out its 200 MW Helios facility in Texas to $97.2 million.

Crypto miner Argo Blockchain (ARB) is borrowing $70.6 million from a subsidiary of New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to fund the purchase of mining equipment for its Helios facility in Texas.

Argo, which has a market cap of £308 million ($385 million), announced another $26.6 million loan from NYDIG back in March, bringing the total to $97.2 million.

Argo expects the Helios facility in Dickens county to operate at 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity, but has the capacity to be ramped up to 800 MW, which would make it one of the largest mines in the world. The firm is one of a few buying Intel’s new mining chips.

The loan announced on Wednesday will be paid out in eight tranches from the end of April to July, each with an interest rate of 12% and maturing in about two years.

The loan announced in March came with an 8.25% per annum interest rate and a term of four years.

In Q4 of 2021, Argo also raised £29.6 million ($40.0 million) in unsecured debt by issuing of senior notes that are traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, according to its annual earnings report.

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The stock rose the most since March after the miner said it expects its hashrate to reach 5.5 EH/s by year-end.

Argo Blockchain (ARB) shares surged on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday after the bitcoin miner raised the hashrate guidance in its annual earnings report.

The shares traded around 70 pence, ($0.9) at the time of writing, an increase of 15% from Wednesday’s market close. The jump is the biggest since March 9, when it gained 18% on the day, data from TradingView shows.

In a report published after U.S. markets closed, Argo said it expects its hashrate to increase to 5.5 exahash/second (EH/s) by the end of the year, up from its previous estimate of 3.7 EH/s.

The miner is among four companies that have disclosed they will be using Intel’s new bitcoin mining chip, the other three being Hive Blockchain, Griid Infrastructure, and Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square).

The miner also saw sales reach $100.1 million, beating the average analyst estimate of $98.3 million, with revenue up 291%.

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