A startup company is proposing to build a large Bitcoin mining operation on Alaska’s North Slope later this year that’s expected to be powered by the region’s abundant natural gas — a test of an operation that it wants to grow into the largest in the nation.

The project from Wasilla-based Stax Capital Partners would be the first of its kind for the state, and the company wants to “create the playbook for sustainable, at-scale Bitcoin mining in Alaska,” said chief executive Sparrow Mahoney. She said Alaska is “the only place this makes sense, long term, for the industry.”

Stax recently applied for a permit with state land managers to set up shipping container-like pods housing natural gas generators and computers at a site some 30 miles south of the massive Prudhoe Bay oil field. The

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