A former Bitcoin miner says he lost a fortune worth over $700 million after his partner accidentally threw a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin into a landfill dumpster more than a decade ago.

James Howells, a resident of Newport, Wales, asked his local council for permission to search through the trash site for his lost hard drive, but his request was cancelled by the council.

Howells is now suing Newport City Council, demanding either access to his property to search for the hard drive or give him compensation worth the same amount. He claims to have mined 8,000 Bitcoin in 2009, after being inspired by the financial crisis the year before.

The Bitcoins were stored on a private key inside his computer hard drive. He put the hard drive in a drawer while he was updating his PC. In 2013, Howells put the hard drive in a plastic bag, and his former partner accidentally took it to the dump, where it was thrown into a large waste bin. With Bitcoin now worth $93,637 each, the lost hard drive could be worth over $749 million.

Howells says, "This problem will never go away. It's always going to be a treasure hunt. The value of the treasure keeps increasing, and that won't stop." He is so eager to recover the hard drive that he offered Newport City Council 25% of its value for community projects in exchange for their help. However, he says the council has rejected his request to search the dump about 10 times.

Howells threatened the council with legal action stating that on December 3, his legal team will present their case in a commerce court in Cardiff, Wales. They will argue that he not only has intellectual property rights over the hard drive because he mined the Bitcoin, but also property rights because he never willingly gave the drive to the council-owned landfill.

A spokesman for Newport City Council told Fortune that they have been contacted several times since 2013 about retrieving the hard drive from the landfill. The council has informed Howells repeatedly that excavation is not allowed under their environmental permit, as it would cause significant harm to the surrounding area. The council is the only organization authorized to carry out operations on the site.