Teck Mining Magnate Stands Between Glencore and Mega Deal

The fate of the biggest mining deal in more than a decade lies in the hands of a Canadian magnate who built a fortune on copper and coal.

Norman Keevil Jr., 85, is the controlling shareholder of Teck Resources Ltd., a mining company he built with his father nearly six decades ago. Today, the Vancouver-based firm produces copper and zinc from a handful of mines scattered across the Americas, and steelmaking coal from lucrative operations in Canada.

Those assets make Teck appealing to global miners hunting for more of the industrial metals that underpin the global transition to ...