From 1880 to 1885 the first brines were obtained in Wyoming and Genesee counties by boring deep wells into beds of rock salt, and in 1885 the mining of the extensive deposits of rock salt in Livingston county was begun.
It has also been proposed to concentrate the brines under diminished pressure.
Its chief commercial sources are the salt deposits at Stassfurt in Prussian Saxony, in which magnesium bromide is found associated with various chlorides, and the brines of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, U.S.A.; small quantities are obtained from the mother liquors of Chile saltpetre and kelp. In combination with silver it is found as the mineral bromargyrite (bromite).
Fluid inclusion and oxygen isotope data are typical of basinal brines.
Overnight brines require about 1/2 cup table salt per gallon of water.