About Us

In 1946, Harold Marcus purchased a small tank truck business hauling crude oil and brine in the local oil fields.  To keep his business growing, Marcus expanded by doing dust control work; using local oil field brine and other dust control products.

In 1963 a local oil company drilled a Cambrian oil well which produced both crude oil and a heavy solution of brine and calcium.  The oil company had no disposal well at this time, so they hired Harold Marcus Limited to haul the brine solution away and spread it on any near by roads.   In doing so, a local road was covered with so much calcium brine that the road superintendent was concerned that the solution was going to eat up his stone and gravel.  He ordered Marcus “not to apply any more of that stuff to his roads”.  So the trucking company went to the next township and spread the calcium brine there; and as roads were needed to spread the solution, Marcus went from one township to another.

During this time the oil company was busy drilling a disposal well to be able to dispose of their calcium brine themselves.  In four weeks time, the original road superintendent observed what had happened to his roads where the brine solution was spread.  He came back to Marcus and asked if he “could get more of that stuff that we had spread on his roads, it made his roads smooth like asphalt, no more dust.”  Marcus told him they could get more brine for him but now there would be a charge since the oil company had their disposal well working and they no longer needed to send their brine out to any roads.  The road superintendent said “it was great and did such an excellent job that he would be glad to pay for having it put on all of his township roads.”

Marcus now had to go to all of the surrounding townships where they had put the calcium brine at no cost to the township and inform them that moving forward there would have to be a charge.  Fortunately, all townships were more than happy with what the brine had done to their roads and the dust, that they all wanted their roads done solid.  This would end up being the best advertisement Den-Mar Brines could ever have done!

Harold Marcus Limited had operated the dust control business for the past 15 years and felt that Den-Mar Brines more described the brine & calcium business and in conjunction with Marcus’ other work, Den-Mar was better able to promote the marketing and sales of the brine business, moving forward.

Den-Mar Brines Limited was incorporated October 26, 1967 by Harold Marcus’ wife Vera Christine Marcus.  The name Den-Mar came from the first initial of their three children’s names,   D-Denis, E-Elaine and N-Nancy and Mar – short for Marcus, a family started and a family run business today.

Over the next thirty years Den-Mar Brines Limited installed ten large storage pits to meet the demands for their calcium brine solution.  All of these storage pits were dug near wells that produced a heavy calcium brine solution and were all installed in areas where there was impervious clay.

In 2000, the Ministry of Natural Resources passed new regulations that did not allow for open clay pits, so Den-Mar Brines closed their pits and replaced them with storage tanks which met the MNR regulations.  Also at this time, Den-Mar moved to an area that was known to have a large reef that contained a large volume of 20 % heavy saturation of calcium brine.  Denis Marcus, president of Den-Mar Brines drilled three wells which are capable of producing a large volume of the calcium brine that are required to meet their customers needs.

Den-Mar Brines supplies their calcium brine product “Dust Fighter” to township roads for road stabilization and dust control.  Their product “Freeze Fighter” is supplied to the Ministry of Transportation for de-icing and pre-wetting of Provincial Highways and county roads.  Den-Mar also supplies storage and delivery of their products to highway storage yards where ever required.