Glencore's unsolicited bid for Teck earlier this month was the latest in a wave of mining industry buyout offers fueled in part by rising global opposition to new mine construction and growing demand for copper, a metal key to the green energy transition.

Teck's leadership has repeatedly rejected Glencore's offer as too low and one that would unnecessarily expose its shareholders to Glencore's large thermal coal business and an unwanted oil trading business. Vancouver-based Teck has scheduled a shareholder vote for April 26 on its split plan.

"We're excited about the decision that we put to our shareholders," Teck Chief Operating Officer Harry Conger said during a panel presentation at the World Copper Conference in Santiago.

Conger, who declined to elaborate when approached after his panel presentation, was a last-minute replacement for Teck CEO Jonathan Price at the conference, which the company is sponsoring.

Teck, which has said it would explore a corporate transaction or partnership if it splits, has been approached by Anglo American Plc and five other miners interested in its base metals business, sources told Reuters earlier this week.

Duncan Wanblad, Anglo's CEO, declined on Tuesday to comment on Teck's takeover approaches, but said he would be open to a partnership between Teck's Quebrada Blanca Phase 2 (QB2) copper project and Glencore and Anglo's jointly owned Collahuasi mine, both in Chile.

A banker close to the situation said that a joint venture between the two assets could be valued at around $25 billion. 

"I do absolutely see that there is a Collahuasi/QB2 approach and independently of what happens to Teck, there is an opportunity there that we will all go after," Wanblad said on Tuesday during Anglo's Sustainability Performance Review.

Separately, Robert Friedland, CEO of Canadian miner Ivanhoe Mines Ltd , said in a series of tweets on Monday night that Canada's government should not "lightly sacrifice" Teck to Switzerland-based Glencore at a time when Ottawa wants to position itself as a key global supplier of green energy transition minerals.

"It is short-sighted to sell to Glencore without exploring Teck's valuable opportunities across the industry," Friedland said. 

(Reporting by Clara Denina in London, Ernest Scheyder in Santiago and Divya Rajagopal in Toronto; Editing by Andrea Ricci)