UPDATE 1-Reservoir Minerals shareholders approve takeover by Nevsun

(Adds offer sweetened, dissident shareholders, Nevsun approval,
Nevsun CEO quote)
By Nicole Mordant
VANCOUVER, June 17 (Reuters) - Shareholders of Reservoir
Minerals Inc RMC.V , a small mining company with a large copper
deposit in Serbia, voted in favor of a takeover by fellow
Canadian miner Nevsun Resources Ltd NSU.TO , Reservoir's
chairman said on Friday.
More than two-thirds of Reservoir shareholders supported the
friendly takeover deal, Reservoir Chairman Miles Thompson said
at a special meeting of shareholders in Vancouver.
The vote comes hours after Nevsun sweetened its bid for the
mining exploration and development company by $75 million in
cash, after a campaign by dissident shareholders. That is equal
to an extra C$2 ($1.55) per Reservoir share.
Reservoir and Nevsun, which owns a copper-zinc mine in
Eritrea, had agreed on April 24 that Nevsun would buy Reservoir
for about $365 million in cash and stock. Nevsun also gave
Reservoir about $135 million in funding to help it buy out its
partner from the upper portion of its flagship Timok copper
project in eastern Serbia.
The eleventh-hour sweetener comes after two Reservoir
shareholders, China-based smelting company Shandong Xiangguang
Group and Jing Bao, a China-based natural resources investment
company, urged fellow shareholders to reject the Nevsun takeover
bid, on the grounds it was too cheap.
Shandong Xiangguang, its affiliates, and Jing Bao
collectively own more than 14 percent of Reservoir's shares.

Nevsun accused Jing Bao and Shandong Xiangguang, which last
week made an unsolicited $130 million financing proposal to
Reservoir, of trying to seize the Timok asset "for their own
interests."
Nevsun shareholders also voted in favor of the transaction
in a separate vote on Friday.
"We're looking forward to moving the Timok project into the
development stage," said Nevsun Chief Executive Cliff Davis.
($1 = 1.2871 Canadian dollars)