While investors of Apollo Global Capital (APL) have been waiting since January 2021 for the company to start its deep sea mining operations, some of its investors and partners have been busy cooking up a new way to raise funds: cryptocurrency.
OPM: Apollo Global commits to start offshore mining no later than May 30
APL’s equipment partner, Pelletized Iron & Titanium Vanadium (Phils.) Corp. (PITV), have proposed to issue Ferro Coin/Token which will be tied to the earnings of magnetite iron ore extracted and processed from the listed firm’s prospect off the shore of Cagayan.
The proceeds of Ferro Coin will be used to build the processing plants inside the Cagayan Economic Zone and possibly Indonesia for the magnetite iron mined by APL.
“This venture is projected to establish the Philippines’ first authorized and regulated offshore magnetite iron mining project in the province of Cagayan, and to use the extracted and processed magnetite iron product to securitize a new cryptocurrency, Ferro Coin,” according to Ferro Coin on its website which has been recently disabled.
The project is led by APL director and party-list Congresswoman Bernadette Herrera Dy who currently chairs PITV.
In September 2021, APL, through its subsidiaries JDVC Resources and Agbiag Mining and Development granted PITV the right to deploy vessels and start commercial extraction and production of magnetite iron on 100 hectares of its 1,897-hectare concession area. PITV guaranteed a minimum monthly volume production of 100,000 tons of export or high-grade magnetite iron.
Herrera-Dy’s partners in Ferro Coin are her father Alejandro Cruz-Herrera, PITV consultant and Advanced Technology Resources Mining and Business Process Technology Provider chairman; Agbiag Mining chairman Jesus Verocel; Abogado Benjamin S. Luis; PITV and Advanced Tech consultant Felipe Calderon; and Geologist Louis Santos.
Ferro Coin is said to be registered with the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), the country’s digital currency and blockchain hub.
It claims to have the backing of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Securities and Exchange Commission and partners Impero (an AFAB-registered Filipino blockchain firm), Celestial Lotus based in Seychelles and GTC Japan.
Ferro Coin dubbed its iron coin as the “first of its kind” in the world to be domiciled in the first regulated digital assets jurisdictions (AFAB) in the world.
“Purchasers of Ferro Tokens can have peace of mind that they are holding a commodity token that was evaluated, processed, verified and endorsed by the OBFTS (Offshore Blockchain and Financial Technology Solutions) Group,” said Ferro Coin/Token.
APL had already raised P988 million from a follow-on offering in September 2021. It has an existing P416 million credit line from the Development Bank of the Philippines.
It remains to be seen whether APL’s partners will proceed with the Ferro Coin/Token fund raising considering the lingering uncertainty over its mining project.
