Kingsgate Consolidated's directors narrowly avoided a spill at an acrimonious extraordinary general meeting called by British shareholder Metal Tiger but many investors continue to support an overhaul of the board.

At the shareholder meeting in Sydney on Tuesday, insults were flung back and forth over the future direction of the Australian gold mining group, with one shareholder saying he had sent an email to executive chairman Ross Smyth-Kirk 18 months ago telling him that he was "an arrogant, over-educated idiot".