07:08 AM EDT, 04/16/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Hut 8 Corp. ( HUT ) , one of North America's largest Bitcoin miners, was down 2% in US premarket on Tuesday as it announced the "energization" of one third of its 63 MW site at Salt Creek in Culberson County, Texas.

Hut 8 ( HUT ) said it is "phasing energization to maximize deployed hashrate pre-halving and will continue to energize the site in the coming weeks".

"With Salt Creek, we gain critical control over our miner fleet and operating costs as we head into the halving," CEO Asher Genoot said in a statement. "Our outlook on energy prices at the site suggests that the potential for cost savings relative to our cost of mining at Kearney and Granbury is in line with the 30% reduction initially projected."

Tuesday's premarket losses come after Hut declined more than 6% in regular trade on both the Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday. The company is trading near 52-week lows and has lost two-thirds of its value since hitting a recent peak in July.

As previously announced, Hut 8 ( HUT ) relocated a portion of its most efficient hosted miners from Kearney and Granbury to Salt Creek in March. Hut 8 ( HUT ) has deployed Reactor, its proprietary energy curtailment software, to automate site operations, "ensure that miners hash when profitable, and reduce the site's realized cost of energy".

Genoot noted what the company has achieved in 78 days, including the removal of more than 25,000 miners from Kearney and Granbury in eight days. He said: "We remain on track to deliver an incredibly cost-effective buildout: Our expected all-in cost of US$275,000 per megawatt or less represents a 40% savings versus recent acquisitions in the area. As demonstrated with Salt Creek, we will continue to act decisively to strengthen and grow our self-mining business."