(Updates with background)
    March 4 (Reuters) - Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd  TRQ.TO 
said on Thursday Chief Executive Officer Ulf Quellmann has
resigned after top shareholder Rio Tinto  RIO.L  told the
Canadian miner it plans to vote against his re-election. 
    The company said it has appointed Steeve Thibeault as
interim CEO.
    Turquoise Hill has been locked in a feud with
Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Plc, which holds 51% of the
company, over the underground expansion of the massive Oyu
Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia, in which Turquoise owns a 66%
stake. 
    Tensions between mine operator Rio and Turquoise Hill's
management and minority shareholders have spilled into the open
in recent months.
    Turqoise said that in recent discussions, Rio had informed
the company's board that it plans to vote against Quellmann's
re-election at the annual shareholders' meeting in May as the
London-listed miner believes new leadership was needed at
Turquoise to advance work at Oyu Tolgoi.


 (Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika
Syamnath)
 ((Arundhati.Sarkar@thomsonreuters.com;
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