Valereum PLC (AQSE:VLRM, FRA:6TJ, OTCQB:VLRMF) has struck a definitive agreement with Quorium Global Photonics SPC that would replace its existing US$200 million medium-term notes with VGOLD-CORE tokens valued at about US$279.5 million, deepening its exposure to the gold-backed tokenisation structure it has been building with QGP.
Under the deal, the VGOLD-CORE tokens will be released quarterly over the next five years at US$13.975 million per quarter, with each release converted by reference to the LBMA gold price on the release date. The tokens will sit in escrow until verification is complete, alongside US$279.5 million of VGOLD-EQ tokens tied to the full mining reserves within QGP.
Valereum said an international accounting firm specialising in digital assets has been hired to lead verification, including proof of reserves, asset-backing attestation and an investment-grade technical audit of the underlying smart contracts and ERC-1404 structure. The verification process is central to the agreement: if the mining assets are not verified, the existing note instrument remains in place and the coupon that fell due on 29 March becomes immediately payable in US dollars or USDC.
Chief executive Gary Cottle said the conversion “completely aligns” Valereum with QGP and its “mine to investor” tokenisation ecosystem, adding that the focus now is on verification and monetising the opportunity.
Pieter Scholtz and Gerhard Kotzee, directors of Valereum Plc and QGP, meanwhile, described it as "the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle" for the mine-to-tokenisation ecosystem the firms have been developing. Adding that "for the first time, a single financial ecosystem connects a producing gold mine, its tokenised equity and reserves, and a public capital markets distribution platform."
Valereum noted that its VGOLD platform is a regulatory-approved tokenised gold product supported by gold assets, subject to final verification and regulatory approvals.