Bitcoin miners are celebrating again but how long will this latest boom last?

Russell Willans and Andrew Sanchez have forged an unusual path as outback miners. Instead of physical commodities, their secret facility in regional Western Australia is searching for some people’s new age version of gold. They’re mining bitcoin, a divisive digital commodity that technically only exists as a complex code on a computer network. And right now, after a massive crash, the price of an individual “coin” is surging again on trading markets past US$70,000 each. “We’re super excited,” Russell says. For the uninitiated, bitcoin mining is more reliant on computing and microchips than pick-up trucks and diggers. “I guess the…