NESQUEHONING, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — It could be part of the future of digital currency, it could be a new way to clean up the environment, or it could be both.

At the Panther Creek plant in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, the waste from old coal mines is being used to power a Bitcoin mine.

The plant is 2,800 miles away from Silicon Valley. Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey are not seen walking these streets.

And yet, the borough of Nesquehoning, tucked into a valley in Pennsylvania coal country, is the site of America’s newest, large-scale Bitcoin mine.

“I didn’t know they had a Bitcoin mine. What is it? I mean, how do they mine Bitcoin?” said James Ehling of Jim Thorpe, Pa.

“My father was a miner years ago. But as far as what you call it, I never heard of it that way,” said Debbie Tristani of Nesquehoning, Pa.

Publicly-traded Stronghold Digital Mining purchased the Panther Creek Energy Facility, a defunct coal plant in town, to power its Bitcoin mine.

Energy industry veteran Bill Spence says he came up with the idea to make money on digital currency while also cleaning up his home state of coal refuse.

“I think I’m curious, painfully curious,” said Spence. When asked why it’s painful, he said, “it’s a never-ending process. It’s an itch you just can’t scratch.”

“There’s a direct correlation in art with us, with Bitcoin and cleaning up the environment,” he continued.

Workers transport the coal waste from several sites, the largest being the Swoyersville dump site near Wilkes-Barre. They…