Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968)

American Mining Magnate

2025 Inductee from Mining’s Past

Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, known as the “King of Copper,” had a major role in developing large copper deposits worldwide, especially porphyry copper deposits in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico and sediment-hosted copper deposits in the Copper Belt of current day Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Beatty was born into a middle-class family on the site of what is now the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, New York. After graduating from Columbia School of Mines in 1898 with his Master of Engineering degree and his Doctor of Science degree, he bought a one-way ticket to Denver, Colorado. His first job in the mines earned him $2 per day as a "mucker", clearing away rocks and soil from mine tunnels.

Beatty joined the management team of the Guggenheim Exploration Company in 1903. He went on to serve as a Director of Nevada Consolidated Copper Co., Ray Consolidated Copper Co., and Chino Copper Co.  In 1908, when he left the Guggenheims, he was regarded as one of the country's leading mining engineers. He then set up an office on Broadway, Manhattan as an independent mining consultant.

He moved to England and founded the London-based mining company, Selection Trust, in 1914. World War I delayed the company's expansion, but during the 1920s the business expanded to acquire interest in the USSR, present-day Ghana and the Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone. He made a fortune in present-day Zambia and present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo through the Rhodesian Selection Trust Ltd., and his development of the Bwana M’Kubwa and Mufulira mines. 

He became a naturalized British subject in 1933. Beatty had supported the war effort, contributing large volumes of raw materials to the Allies. He received a belated knighthood by Elizabeth II in the 1954 Birthday Honours for his contribution to the wartime effort.

Beatty was a noted collector. He moved to Ireland in the early 1950s and was made a Freeman of Dublin in 1954. In 1957, he was the first person to be granted honorary citizenship of Ireland. He continued to collect in the 1950s and 1960s, acquiring important Ethiopian manuscripts and Japanese printed material during that period.

                            

Clara Clark (1876-1959) and Isabel Little (1883-1936)

Montana Tech's First Female Mining Engineers

2025 Inductees from Mining’s Past

Clara Clark and Isabel Little were members of the first 4-year class at Montana School of Mines (now Montana Technological University) and graduated in 1904. They were Montana Tech’s first female Mining Engineering graduates and blazed trails in the mining industry.

Clara Clark was born in Deer Lodge, MT before moving to Butte. Her family had ties to mining industry. Her father located the Black Rock mining claims and held other claims throughout the Butte district.  Her brother managed the United Verde Mine in Jerome, Arizona. Clark was the very first student to enroll at the Montana School of Mines. Upon graduation, Clark held the inaugural meeting of the Montana School of Mines Alumni Association on June 10, 1904.

Clark represented the State of Montana several times at the American Mining Congress as the only female life member.  At the 1905 convention in El Paso, Clark was in the advance guard of the Montana delegation and was the special representative of the Mayor of Butte.  Clara was introduced as the “only woman mining engineer in the west,” a claim she quickly disclaimed by recognizing her classmate, Isabel Little, and another woman who graduated from the Colorado School of Mines. 

Clark distinguished herself as the “Queen of the Mountains” when she argued for a Department of Mines position in President Theodore Roosevelt’s cabinet. While a cabinet position was not created, the U.S. Bureau of Mines was established immediately following Roosevelt’s presidency in 1910 reflecting the importance of mining. Clark was an assayer in Gibsonville, ID, a mining consultant for Copper King William A. Clark for whom she evaluated ore deposits in neighboring states, and owned portions of mining claims in Butte.  In 1907, Clara married James Reese and chose to leave the mining profession, but continued to inspire other women to become mining engineers. She and James had three children, and she died on October 21, 1959, in Los Angeles, California.

Heralding from Baltimore, Maryland, Isabel Little moved to Butte, to live with her aunt while attending Montana School of Mines. Little initially set her sights on mathematics but became fascinated with Mining Engineering while doing fieldwork at the Ophir, Colusa Parrot, and Neversweat mines.  She graduated with honors, which was featured in the national news. Little was often credited as the only woman mining engineer, a fact she also disclaimed, mentioning her friend Clara Clark.

After graduation, she spoke of the hardships she experienced in the underground mines and of the miners who were reluctant to allow women underground.  She worked as an assayer, a mining consultant, and was ahead of her time as a promoter of women in Mining Engineering. Little married Leon Clark Stevenson, whom she met while he attended Montana School of Mines in 1906. They had two children together.  Little passed away in Virginia on November 21, 1936.

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.

SME 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.