The Magna Futura Mine is a pegmatite-hosted locality in Stoneham, Oxford County, Maine, owned and operated by prospector and miner Johnny Sassi. Set higher on Sassi’s property than the nearby Red Carpet Mine, Magna Futura shares the mountain’s broad views but has its own distinct character as a garnet-bearing pegmatite prospect. Its name roughly translates as “great future” or “great things to come.” This is is one of several prospects Sassi has developed on the property, alongside other briefly explored zones and other prospects on the horizon.

After purchasing the property in 2017, Sassi began working Magna Futura in 2018. Those early seasons combined mining with the harder logistical work of cutting and building an access road up from the base of the mountain so equipment could reach the prospect. Friends and fellow miners have periodically brought in larger equipment and tools to expand the work.

Magna Futura is characterized primarily by abundant, well-formed clusters of almandine garnets, many occurring in matrix and some reaching approximately two inches across. The locality has also produced beryl, including aquamarine, heliodor, goshenite, and common beryl, as well as feldspar, muscovite, quartz, biotite, apatite, fluorapatite, pyrite, hyalite opal, phosphosiderite, and schorl. As with his other prospects on the property, Magna Futura reflects the trial-and-error nature of mineral exploration and the continuing thrill of the hunt.

In 2023, Sassi invited fellow miner Jeff Morrison (owner of the Havey Mine) to work with him on the mountain. After beginning at the nearby Red Carpet Mine, they shifted higher to Magna Futura, using the larger equipment already brought on site by Morrison to test and further expose the garnet-bearing pegmatite

Magna Futura is a privately owned locality and is not open for public collecting. Below, you’ll find Jeff Morrison’s account of the 2023 season.