What happens to mining with the energy crisis?

The Kosovar government was forced to adopt draconian policies to combat the energy tsunami that threatens to overwhelm its own economy.

Adriano DE ROSA January 8, 2022

stop mining Kosovo

Anyone who had made an investment project out of it will be forced to resign. The arrows of indignation against the government, which has opted for the adoption of a decisive measure, will be worth nothing: cryptocurrency mining activities have been banned in Kosovo since last Tuesday. Too much energy consumption is attributable to this activity, too much especially at a time when the country is facing the worst energy crisis of the last ten years. What triggered the fuse was a market imbalance due to the supply side. The combination of the interruptions in production from coal-fired plants and the rise in prices for the import of energy, has resulted in a time bomb inevitably destined to cause damage. In this situation, Kosovo, populated by about 1.8 million people, is particularly exposed given the share of energy currently imported, over 40% of the total energy consumed. In the short term, a significant reduction of this share is not conceivable for various reasons. There is to consider the cost of new plants, the time needed to build them, but also (or above all) that the production technology is still 90% stopped by the combustion of lignite, a material of which Kosovo has the fifth largest. reserve to the world. The Minister of Economy and Energy was clear, in these conditions of severe difficulty and with the winter underway, the state cannot afford unnecessary energy consumption. This is a real blow to many young people who in that area of the world had begun to take an interest in mining, giving life to their own entrepreneurial project as documented already in 2018 by Reuters. The fact is that there is no escape from reality, decisions of this kind become necessary when the cuts in electricity supplies no longer become rare overload events, but rather turn into daily practices necessary for the rationing of available resources. What is the concrete damage generated by the mining ban? A Kosovar miner, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Reuters that he was able to earn 2400 euros a month thanks to the use of 40 GPUs. A significant loss, especially when compared to local average incomes which are extremely low. The noose tied around the neck of the Kosovars leaves little room for maneuver for the government. It is therefore foreseeable that this type of draconian policies will continue to be implemented, with all due respect for those who, thanks to mining, had found an unexpected economic autonomy.