75% of Marathon's mining fleet still offline two weeks after huge storm

Marathon’s CEO Fred Thiel said that it will take time to get the facility back to full strength, but that the company could decide to speed up its move out of Hardin.

Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital Holdings has revealed that 75% of its mining capability has been out of commission since a severe storm hit Montana on June 11. 

Marathon finally issued a statement on its website on June 28 explaining that the storm struck across the town of Hardin, Montana on June 11, damaging the power generating facility that supplies Marathon’s local mining operations. According to the company, “initial electrical tests have found that the majority of the Company’s miners were not materially damaged by the storm.”

The company noted that 30,000 devices, or 75% of the company’s fleet, have been out of action since the storm. Bitcoin blockchain explorers indicate that the miners have been down for two and a half weeks.

With these miners offline, Marathon’s Bitcoin production is expected to be significantly reduced until repairs to the power generating facility in Montana can be completed or until the miners can be relocated to new facilities.

Marathon noted that the facility will remain without power until the damaged power facility from BeoWulf Energy can be repaired.

$MARA Update on mining ops in Montana

- Severe storm passed through Hardin on 6/11
- Power plant cooling towers need repairs
- Majority of miners not damaged
- Miners outside Hardin (0.6 EH/s) remain hashing via 3rd party pool https://t.co/ZcaD30S1bh

— Marathon Digital Holdings (@MarathonDH) June 28, 2022

Marathon’s CEO Fred Thiel stated that the facility could begin mining again at a reduced capacity as early as the first week of July if certain repairs are made in time.

It has directed its remaining hashpower to contribute to external mining pools while repairs are being made on the damaged facility.

Marathon has pointed its remaining active miners, representing approximately 0.6 EH/s, away from the Company’s mining pool, MaraPool, and towards a third-party mining pool in order to increase the probability of earning Bitcoin.

Exahash per second (EH/s) refers to the amount of hashpower a miner contributes to secure the Bitcoin network.

Marathon contributed about 3.9 EH/s from 36,830 active miners through May and held 9,941 BTC worth about $201.4 million according to CoinGecko.

Mining difficulty is at its lowest level since April according to Bitcoin network tracker Coinwarz.

The company stated that 19,000 miners representing 1.9 EH/s had been installed in Texas-based facilities and were awaiting the energy needed to switch them on.

In light of the functional outages caused by the storm in Hardin, the company said that it is “currently evaluating the possibility of expediting the move of its miners from Montana to new hosting locations,” which could include faster deployment to its new Texas facilities in order to prevent this issue in Hardin from happening again.