TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian diversified miner Teck Resources will spend millions of dollars to buy about 7 150 ha of land located in British Columbia's Elk Valley and Flathead River Valley for conservation purposes.

Teck on Thursday said it intended to spend $19-million to buy these lands, that were “not amenable to mining”, from Tembec.

"We will work in cooperation with First Nations, communities and other stakeholders to ensure these lands can be used to protect key wildlife and fish habitat in the Elk Valley and Flathead River Valley now and for the future," president and CEO Don Lindsay said in a statement.

He added that Teck believed it was possible to have both world-class mining and a world-class environment.

The land included the Flathead town site, about 28 km south-east of Sparwood, a 3 000 ha stretch along the Alexander Creek, and another about 3 000 ha area of the Grave Prairie, north of the others.

Several conservation groups welcomed the transaction.

"We’re very excited that Teck has made a significant investment to purchase and work towards conserving this important wildlife and fish habitat,” Wildsight executive director John Bergenske said.

Flathead Wild, a coalition of conservation groups in British Columbia, Alberta and Montana, lauded Teck’s acquisition of these lands for conservation, saying it is critical habitat for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout, grizzly bears, birds and lynx.

Environmentalists had long been fighting to save the Elk Valley and Flathead River Valley from mining, forcing the provincial government to ban mining and drilling in the basin two years ago. This had also resulted in Cline Mining lodging a $500-million claim against the provincial government, charging that the government unlawfully expropriated three coal properties in the south-eastern parts of the province.