Fortitude has brought a 12-megawatt Zcash mining facility online in Grand Island, Nebraska, marking its first self-developed site and pushing its owned power capacity above 60 megawatts across seven locations in five states. The Digital Currency Group-owned miner said the project has completed construction and electrical testing and is ready for commercial mining operations. Fortitude expects the site to reduce its direct cash cost of mining ZEC to about $40 per coin from roughly $70 per coin, assuming stable electricity, network and market conditions after full equipment deployment. The launch comes as Fortitude pursues a merger with Nasdaq-listed HeartSciences aimed at giving it access to public equity markets and additional capital for mining and power infrastructure expansion.