Neil Prenn (1942-2023)

Mining Innovator

2025 Inductee from Mining’s Past

Prenn was born on Dec. 7, 1942 in Manhattan, New York but his family moved to the hills above Los Angeles when he was young. He developed his lifelong interests in the outdoors, natural resources, and minerals early in life and pursued those in a career as a mining engineer. Neil’s interest in collecting mineral specimens was formed early and he pursued that eagerly as a lifelong student of mineralogy and an enthusiastic collector. Along with minerals he collected mining artifacts; cap tins, ore buckets and dynamite boxes.

Prenn had over 45 years’ experience as a practicing Mining Engineer performing tasks associated with defining and calculating ore reserves, designing mines, optimizing mine designs, mine planning and scheduling, analyzing capital and operating costs, and managing staff. He conducted feasibility and pre-feasibility studies and scoping studies. He prepared technical reports for submission to security commissions and NI 43-101 reports as a Qualified Person.

He graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with an Engineer of Mines degree in 1967 and went to work for Cyprus Mines Corporation at their main office in Los Angeles.  During the summers of 1970, 1971, and 1972 Prenn worked on the development of the Thompson Creek Project. After seven years in Los Angeles, he was transferred to the Cyprus Pima mine.  In 1978, the mine shut down due to copper oversupply which led to low copper prices.  Prenn was asked to complete a feasibility study for the Thompson Creek project.  After completion of the feasibility, he was transferred to Cyprus Uranium, and worked on an open pit Uranium project near Canon City, Colorado.

During 1981 Prenn was sent to help with the startup of the Northumberland gold project, near Kingston Canyon, Nevada.   He then married Camille (Cami) Roettele on January 2, 1982 and moved to Kingston.  In 1984 he became the mine manager for the Zaca project for California Silver, located near Markleeville, California. 

Each job led to another, which led to another, requiring Prenn to blend technology with feasibility studies and mining operations. With all that experience, Neil and Cami started Mine Development Associates (MDA), a mining engineering and geology consulting company, in 1987.

MDA grew slowly and steadily, building a close-knit group of skilled professionals. Projects spanned the globe across six continents for all sizes of companies, from the smallest of junior exploration companies to the largest mining companies. It was sold to the principal employees in 2016.  The employees resold the company in 2019 to South Dakota consulting firm, RESPEC.

Prenn worked with a wide variety of commodities including gold, silver, platinum group metals, copper, cobalt, base metals, limestone, mineral sands, aggregate, bauxite, silica, coal, uranium, and industrial minerals. He was a Registered Professional Engineer in Nevada.

AIME awarded Neil with a Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal in 2022 for Distinguished Service in mining administration, recognizing him as a mining innovator that advanced hundreds of mining properties throughout his career.

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