Local Russian media reported this week that in the Buryat Republic near Lake Baikal in the southern autonomous region, a seemingly ordinary KamAZ truck was packed with 95 mining machines, directly stealing electricity from a 10kV high-voltage line. When the power company personnel opened the door, fans were roaring and heat waves hit their faces, and two drivers fled by car.
According to the Buryat Power Company, this is the 6th similar incident since the beginning of the year, indicating that "truck mining farms" are spreading.
Power Company: Truck Mining Farms Affect Grid Safety
It was discovered that the technical personnel of the Buryat Power Company found abnormal line current during a routine inspection, which led them to locate this truck parked by the forest. The rear of the truck was hidden with numerous mining machines and a mobile transformer station, with a power capacity of nearly 500 kW, equivalent to the electricity consumption of an entire village.
The company's public relations warned that mining machines directly connected to high-voltage lines can lower voltage, cause equipment overheating, and even trigger regional power outages, making the already electricity-scarce Siberian winter even more vulnerable.
A single truck can bring down a village's lighting system...
Ten Regions Banned from Mining Year-Round, Buryat Stops During Winter
To ensure grid safety, the Russian Energy Department will issue a year-round mining ban for 10 regions including Dagestan and Chechnya from 2025; Buryat and Irkutsk will implement a "winter mining shutdown" from November 15 to March 15 the following year.
If mining is conducted without official registration, the maximum fine is 2 million rubles with equipment confiscation, and local authorities are considering introducing criminal liability (new registration system requires mining machine serial numbers, wallet addresses, and production volumes to be reported), but currently, it seems ineffective in combating illegal electricity theft mining.
