Rising electricity prices in China and pressure from local authorities are forcing Chinese miners to look for new locations to place mining capacities. Many choose nearby countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Coal mines, natural gas, cheap electricity, sparsely populated and vast territories make the countries of Central Asia an ideal place for mining bitcoins, Decrypt reports.

If the cost of electricity fluctuates around $0.06 per kilowatt-hour in China, then the average price for kilowatt-hour of electricity in Central Asian countries, such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, costs $0.03.

“The cost of mining is mainly composed of machine costs, electricity rates, rentals for mining sites, operation and maintenance–mining machine costs and electricity take up the majority," says Wu Zheng, the owner of the mining farm, who is thinking about moving production from China to Kazakhstan. "The cost for mining machines is basically fixed. The biggest variable is electricity cost. In this sense, finding cheap electricity is the best way to increase profitability.”

He calculates the profitability of moving mining capacities to Central Asia. Popular Antminer S17 Pro ASIC with electricity prices standing at $0.06 per kWh brings a daily profit of $5.41, while the same mining machine with electricity costing $0.03 per kWh generates $6.83 per day.

Wu tells that his company uses the latest, most powerful mining equipment in China, while older models such as S9, E10 or M3 are moved to countries with cheaper electricity. According to him, he has a farm with Ebit E10 in Kazakhstan, whose profitability in China would be $0.45 per day per machine, while in Kazakhstan the same ASIC generates $1.75 per day.

“In Kazakhstan, coal-fired power costs as little as $0.001 per kilowatt-hour because of the abundant coal source there,” Wu said. “In addition, private power generation is allowed in the country and the electricity we are using comes from private power plants.”