By Divya Rajagopal

TORONTO Pierre Lassonde, a Canadian mining industry veteran, has made an offer to invest in Teck Resources Ltd's coal business, in a bid to thwart Glencore Plc's hostile attempt to merge with Teck.

Vancouver-based Teck has rebuffed Swiss mining company Glencore's $22.5 billon offer to combine the two companies and is instead pursing its own plans to offer a separate its copper and coal business.

Last month, Teck pulled its initial business separation plan at the last minute after failing to secure enough shareholder support. Lassonde said that a separation of the coal and copper business can be done in different forms and does not necessarily have to be a cash purchase.

"We have put forward one model for this, they (Teck) said they like what they see but we don't know what others have offered," Lassonde told Reuters.

Teck declined to comment.

(Reporting by Divya Rajagopal in Toronto, Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Denny Thomas and Sandra Maler)