Guinness Peat Group and Mercantile Investment Company chairman Ron Brierley has thrown a spanner in the works for Murchison Metals , as the iron ore company draws nearer the end of its listed life.

Mercantile, which owns about 12 per cent of Murchison, is seeking to throw Ken Scott-Mackenzie and Greg Martin off the board because it reckons they’ve been wasting cash that could have been returned to shareholders.