Porcupine Hill Quarry is a granitic pegmatite locality in Topsham, Sagadahoc County, Maine, currently leased and worked by collector and miner Paul Pinette. The locality has long been known for producing well-formed black tourmaline, or schorl, and is also noted as one of the few places in Maine where collectors have found quality terminated chrysoberyl crystals. In recent years, blue beryl and gem-quality aquamarine have also become an important part of the Porcupine Hill story.

Although Pinette has leased Porcupine Hill since 2016, his connection to the locality goes back much further. He first visited the site as a kid in the 1980s, when he lived close enough to ride his bicycle there and search the dumps for black tourmaline. “I always wanted to lease the land,” Pinette said. After years of asking the property owner for permission, he gradually gained access: first to look through the dumps, then to collect there exclusively, and eventually to drain water from the quarry and work the ledge under a new agreement.

Historically, Porcupine Hill was worked for feldspar, and well-known collectors were finding black tourmaline there as early as the 1930s. Minerals reported from the locality include schorl, blue beryl and aquamarine, chrysoberyl, columbite, almandine garnet, apatite (one single specimen found), terminated feldspar, quartz, smoky quartz, muscovite, and biotite. Porcupine Hill was also noted in A Collector’s Guide to Maine Mineral Localities for producing some of the finest schorl in Maine, although the book notes that these crystals are brittle and difficult to collect without damage.

Under Pinette’s lease, Porcupine Hill has continued to produce notable material, including very large terminated schorl, blue beryl (some very large), gem quality aquamarine, and recent quartz pockets. The future of active mining at Porcupine Hill is limited by planned development on the property, but Pinette continues to work the locality under lease while access remains available.

Porcupine Hill is a privately leased locality and is not open for public collecting without permission.