Quick Facts
Name: Ocean Floor Granite
Owner: Mark Brace
Location: Bishop Falls, N.L.
Type of business: Granite and Labradorite processing facility.
Granite facts:
Granite is so durable because it’s one of the hardest substances in the world. Formed by slowly cooling magma, the only substance harder than granite is diamond.
Labradorite facts:
A mineral first identified in Labrador, it gives off an iridescent shimmer when polished. This shimmering effect is called labradorescence and is uniquely named after the mineral itself.
Despite landing the biggest deal in Dragons’ Den history, Mark Brace is still trying to dig his way to success.
“After I appeared on Dragons’ Den I thought the government was finally going to say, ‘you proved yourself, and we’ll put in a bit of money’ because what I wanted to do was going to create a lot of employment,” says Brace, owner of Ocean Floor Granite, a granite and Labradorite extracting facility in Bishop Falls, N.L.
Afterward, Brace received a letter, thinking it would be positive; instead, it said his inventory was being expropriated, pausing the deal with the dragons. Before this though, he went through a series of other challenges.
Moving to B.C. with his girlfriend after high school, Brace’s life changed by chance. His plan was to propose and start a life with his partner, but she went back to Newfoundland. Then one day, while he was working in Alberta, his partner died in a car accident.
“I was shocked; it wasn’t expected. I was just talking to her the night before and asking her how things were going,” he says. “From there I didn’t know what to do; my mind was eating me apart. So, I started a roofing company to keep myself busy, and I just worked like a dog and found any job I could find. There were some nights I wouldn’t stop working until two, or three in the morning, because I needed to keep my mind busy.”
Driving around, he would search for houses with roofs that looked like they needed repair and ask right away if they needed a quote. He also worked at schools and on commercial construction contracts before working on a plan for cranberry farming. He found a bog approved for use prior and applied, assuming it would go through. It didn’t.
“I went through all the permits and all the referrals and then it got turned down. So, it was good enough for someone else, but it wasn’t good enough for me,” says Brace.
He then invested about a quarter of a million dollars into industrial equipment as a local granite mine came up for sale. Brace says the 25,000-square-foot processing plant and maintenance shop had millions of dollars worth of rock waiting to be processed, as the original owner passed away and the mine passed on to a holdings company. He promptly went to St. John’s to see the mine’s owners.
“I went after it and managed to be the successful one who got it,” he says. “They had other offers much higher than mine, so I’m glad they decided to go with me,” he says. “They were hard on me and said, ‘you impressed us today, you’re a young person in business who is pushing the limits to make something happen,’ and they asked what I could afford.”
“When I bought the property back in 2017, it wasn’t easy to buy. I was only young and I didn’t have anyone with money supporting me, so I also had to make what I was spending.”
He offered $500,000, and they gave it to him for $400,000.
“When I bought the property back in 2017, it wasn’t easy to buy. I was only young, and I didn’t have anyone with money supporting me, so I also had to make what I was spending,” he says.
Brace says this is when things started to get tough. He had break-ins at the plant, where stolen electrical wire in his production facility cost him time and roughly $150,000 to replace. He then lost his financing and the owners told him he had to pay $10,000 a month to keep the property.
“And if I was a day late, they would have taken the property from me and kept the deposit I put down on it. So, I had to go for four years straight looking for $10,000 a month, and that’s difficult in a smaller community,” says Brace.
This led him to attain the rights of another type of rock quarry, Labradorite, in Labrador. Getting these rights ultimately landed him on the television show Dragons’ Den in 2020. However, this was also the same time when the government informed him there was a grievance against his quarry.
“And I was pre-approved for one million dollars from BDC before I went on Dragons’ Den, and that was all based on the inventory in the quarry. So, the dragons actually stuck around for about two years after the government did that and tried to work this out with the government,” says Brace. “To be honest, it was very discouraging to see.”
At the time, they left the already cut granite on his land but took away his right to be able to sell it. Brace says Ocean Floor Granite received a response from the government for the statement of claim. They admitted to the wrongdoing but denied it had any financial cost to him.
He says the dragons reached out, but because of the lawsuit he is in, the “deal is up in the air,” says Brace.
Currently, Ocean Floor Granite is being requested by potential clients from across the country. Before he can take on orders, Brace is trying to get his cash flow higher than where it is now. He says just to fire up one of the machines for the day costs around $3,000.
“I’m going to need significant cash flow to really move an operation like this,” he says.
Having to run everything on his own, fixing the machines and operating the business are each a full-time job, says Brace. More cash flow will allow him to hire a team for the plant, giving him the ability to focus on the management side.
“I think it just comes from my girlfriend passing; I just wanted to do something bigger than Bishop Falls has ever seen. And I kept going after it and no matter how many times I got knocked down, I wouldn’t let it deter me from my long-term goal.”
“It was only just last year that I was able to get the place running again, and that was from spending all my time roofing to put the money back into the granite mine,” says Brace. “I’m slowly training people and getting there, but I’m doing it all on my own. I’m footing the bill, and I have no loans or anything like that. Everything I do is out of my pocket.”
The market for granite and Labradorite is growing, says Brace. Not only did he have to turn down clients, but he also had to turn down big contracts from companies which included processing other companies’ stone for them.
Another reason Brace is excited to build up his cash flow is to “really get serious about the world contracts.” With plans to work with clients around the world, he says there are multi-million dollar contracts he’s had to turn down.
“There’s a client there who I’m looking to secure some large orders from. They used to buy about $30 million worth of Labradorite a year from the Labrador quarry. So, I’m trying to get those deals back, plus get those deals for the black granite as well,” says Brace.
Black granite is a dimension stone; this includes any stone that has been quarried and cut, or shaped for use, such as a monument. Brace says at the moment, he is the only person in Atlantic Canada who is mining and processing dimension stone.
Mining in Newfoundland employs over 8,000 people in the province and is one of its oldest industries. According to a report released by the Fraser Institute in June 2022, titled Newfoundland and Labrador Should Unleash the Province’s Mining Potential, “mining accounts for roughly eight percent of Newfoundland and Labrador’s gross domestic product.”
Brace figures Ocean Floor Granite has processed or sold 10,000 metric tonnes to date.
“We’re doing okay. We’re doing orders here now, but we could be doing a lot more,” says Brace. The company is currently completing a special project for Newfoundland and Labrador’s National War Memorial Centennial Project. Being revealed on July 1, 2024, a part of this project is the repatriation of an unknown First World War soldier from Northern France.
“It’s a huge opportunity; there’s only one other tomb like it in the country, and that’s in Ottawa. We’re building this tomb that’s based out of all black granite and the cover out of Labradorite,” says Brace.
Ocean Floor Granite also did several landscaping material projects over the summer, polished floor tiles, and made headstones. The company also does custom fireplaces and has a paving stone for driveways which Brace says is a little more expensive than asphalt, but it’ll last forever.
He says what he is mining is good for the province, and because of high demand around the world for granite, the need will always be there. He says his operation, at full scale, could bring hundreds of jobs to the province.
“So, someone could grow this kind of company to however far you want to take on that demand. The potential is there, and it’s real,” he says. “If you have a hundred employees and they’re making good salaries, well, they’re going to be building homes, and even the business itself; it doesn’t just employ in one field. You need electricians; you need pipefitters.”
Brace worked hard to establish his company and says a strong work ethic and passion to build his community comes from his personal struggles.
“I think it just comes from my girlfriend passing; I just wanted to do something bigger than Bishop Falls has ever seen. And I kept going after it, and no matter how many times I got knocked down, I wouldn’t let it deter me from my long-term goal,” says Brace.
Although he admits it’s stressful due to the constant challenges, he believes this will soon pay off.
“I took it over and brought it back to life before it went to a scrap yard, and it’s something that will go on for generations and generations, even long after I’m gone,” he says.
