A New York-based company that is working to develop a data center in Nesquehoning has ceased its bitcoin mining operations on land that is proposed to become part of the data center complex.

This week, Keel Infrastructure officials confirmed that it has stopped the bitcoin mining operations at its Panther Creek site, located at Panther Creek Cogeneration Plant off Dennison Road on the west side of the borough.

Amanda Ignatius, director of corporate communications for Keel, said that the cogeneration plan remains in a maintenance outage, but could not comment on what the future plans for the existing facility structures are at this time.

“Our approach in Pennsylvania has been to redevelop legacy energy and industrial sites, and we’ll continue engaging the community and local officials as plans take shape,” Ignatius said via email.

A maintenance outage is a normal course for the plant’s operations, with required maintenance being performed to “ensure the safe and efficient operation of the plant.”

Ignatius said that employees at the Panther Creek facility are not affected by the maintenance outage.

With regards to Keel’s project for a 350-megawatt data center next to the Panther Creek site off Industrial Road, Keel reported that there have been no changes to the existing project timeline, which was released in August.

“Permitting continues to proceed on schedule, and we are still awaiting final environmental permits which we expect in the coming months,” the company stated.

Last month, Nesquehoning Borough Council approved an escrow account being set up by Keel to be used to reimburse the borough for fees spent that are associated with the project.

“We are in the process of gathering all past and present invoices for all applicable expenses incurred for the Carbon Node East and West projects, including but not limited to legal, engineering, consulting and borough in-house labor costs and reconciling these invoices with what we currently have on record,” council President Bruce Nalesnik said via email last week.

He noted that the final land development plan for the Carbon Node East project is currently being reviewed by the borough planning commission’s engineer, who will then submit his questions back to Keel for clarification.

“When this process is completed, a planning commission meeting will be held to discuss and possibly approve the final LDP, resulting in forwarding the final LDP for review and possible approval by borough council,” Nalesnik said.

In August, Keel Infrastructure officials met with the public during a hearing at Panther Valley Junior-Senior High School.

Officials reported that provided all Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection permits are received, the data center project constructed is expected to begin in 2027 and take approximately 20 months to complete.

At that meeting, Keel officials answered a number of questions ahead of the state’s written testimony period closing, including water usage, PPL supply, the company’s commitment to the Panther Valley School District, noise levels, reforestation and employment after construction is completed.

Carbon Node East, operated by Keel Infrastructure, has been planning the four-building, 350-megawatt data center that would employ approximately 300 people once fully operational.

Keel Infrastructure is a New York City-based digital infrastructure and energy company that develops and owns data centers and energy infrastructure for high-performance computing workloads, including AI.

A more in-depth visual of the project is also available on Keel’s website at www.keelinfra.com/campuses/panther-creek.