(Adds background, Glencore statement)
By Steve Scherer and Divya Rajagopal
TORONTO, April 24 (Reuters) - Teck Resources Ltd , which is trying to fend off an unsolicited $22.5 billion takeover offer from Glencore Plc, should remain headquartered in Canada and help the country expand its critical minerals industry, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Monday.
The comments from Freeland, who is also Canada's deputy prime minister, are the clearest indication to date that Ottawa is watching closely the increasingly acrimonious takeover battle between Vancouver-based miner Teck and Switzerland's Glencore.
The bid is the latest in a mounting wave of mining industry buyout offers fueled by growing demand for copper and other metals critical to the green energy transition.
"We need companies like Teck here in Canada, companies with a strong commitment to Canada," Freeland wrote in a letter to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade that was seen by Reuters. Freeland was responding to concerns from the board about Teck's future in Canada in the wake of Glencore's unsolicited bid.
Teck's shareholders must respond by Monday on a separate plan from Teck to split its coal and metals businesses, with results released on Wednesday. Glencore's takeover attempt likely would be scuttled if Teck's shareholders support the split.
Teck did not respond to an email request for comment.
Glencore said it did not want to comment on Freeland's statement and directed Reuters to its April 3 letter to shareholders where it spelled out its history of its operation in Canada that dates back more than 100 years.
The hostile bid by Glencore has become a political issue in Canada. David Eby, the premier of British Columbia, the Canadian province where Teck is based, told local reporters last week said that the province will lobby the federal government to prevent Glencore's takeover. (Reporting by Divya Rajagopal and Steve Scherer; editing by Ernest Scheyder and Marguerita Choy)
