James Howells, 39, says his ex-partner mistakenly discarded the drive, containing his Bitcoin wallet, at a Newport rubbish tip in 2013.   

Despite offering to share the fortune with Newport City Council, his requests to search the site have been consistently denied. The council argued the refuse became their property upon entering the landfill. However, they recently announced plans to close the site in 2025-26 to build a solar farm.

Mr Howells told BBC: “The council planning on closing the landfill so soon is quite a surprise, especially since it claimed at the High Court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway.”

Mr Howells recently lost a High Court case where he sought to force the council to allow a search or award him £495m in compensation. Undeterred, he is now exploring purchasing the landfill outright. He has discussed this possibility with investment partners and confirmed it is a serious option.   

Mr Howells believes he has narrowed down the location of the hard drive within the 1.4 million tonnes of refuse to an area of 100,000 tonnes. Despite his efforts, Judge Keyser KC dismissed his case, stating it had “no realistic prospect” of success.