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heres the article not over yet

Pursell survives at JervoisJamie Freed
April 3, 2009
THE 22-year reign of Jervois Mining's executive chairman, Duncan Pursell, remained in doubt last night, even though he prevailed over rebel shareholders in the initial vote count at a special meeting in Melbourne.

A group led by the Sydney mining identity Norman Seckold had sought to remove Mr Pursell and three other directors from the Jervois board.

The vote on whether to oust Mr Pursell, who last year would not extend the deadline for China Railway to finalise a joint venture agreement on a nickel laterite project in Young, NSW, was very close.

An investor who attended the two-hour meeting described the atmosphere as "heated".

The results of the meeting released to the ASX showed that discounting the proxies voted at the discretion of Mr Pursell, 48.5 per cent were in favour of his removal, while 50.5 per cent were opposed.

Including 105 million proxies voted at Mr Pursell's discretion - and therefore opposed to the resolution - 46.4 per cent were in favour and 53.6 per cent were opposed.

Jervois had controversially issued hundreds of millions of shares after the notice of meeting was sent out.

The proxy form sent to Jervois shareholders said: "The chairman of the meeting intends to vote undirected proxies in favour of each item of business." The results of voting released yesterday afternoon demonstrated Mr Pursell directed the undirected proxies against eight of the 11 resolutions, despite the advice on the form.

"He has disenfranchised shareholders," said Peter Nightingale, who was a "rebel" candidate for the board.

If those proxies had been voted in favour of all of the resolutions, the rebel shareholders would have won control of the board and Mr Pursell would have been ousted from the company.

The Herald was unable to reach Mr Pursell for comment.

Mr Seckold said there could be cause for a legal challenge to the vote.