The company announced non-executive chairman Ronnie Beevor, non-executive director Brett Clark and executive director strategy Maree Arnason have resigned.

Those three directors had all been in the sights of 23% shareholder ASF Group, which also had requisitioned a 249D meeting to have them removed.

They also faced a spill motion as a result of the company’s remuneration report being voted down for a second time.

Under Australian corporate law, if the remuneration report is rejected twice, the board is spilled.

With Beevor, Clark and Arnason resigning, the 249D meeting requisition has been withdrawn.

However, the two strikes board spill motion still rolls on. Rey will have to seek Australian Securities and Investments Commission permission for that spill to stopped.

At its annual general meeting on November 22, Rey Resources had the ignominy of having its remuneration report voted down for a second time.

In 2011 its remuneration report had been rejected – largely due to the institutional shareholders disagreeing with its proposal to reward non-executive directors with shares.

That non-executive director share plan was removed from the 2012 remuneration report.

Regardless, that remuneration report was voted down too, with ASF Group chairwoman Min Yang – who also was made a Rey Resources director – voting against it.

That means Yang could also be up for the chop should the spill motion go ahead.

However, given the benefits ASF potentially brings to Rey and the size of its stake in the company, that would be unlikely.

With ASF comes potential access to Chinese money and customers – two things a company trying to develop a coal resource in the Western Australian Kimberley region would find handy.

This article first appeared in ILN's sister publication MiningNews.net.