The HYDRAULIC LAKE deposit is located in the Hydraulic Creek valley 1.5 kilometres north of Hydraulic Lake and approximately 24 kilometres southeast of Kelowna.

Work on the property, prior to the uranium moratorium in 1980, consisted of geological and radiometric surveys and extensive diamond drilling. In 1976, Tyee Lake Resources Ltd. drilled 29 holes for a total of 1,619 metres. In 1977, Noranda Exploration Company drilled 2,423 metres in 39 diamond-drill holes and 4,522 metres in rotary holes. In 1978, Placer Development optioned the property and carried out 360 metres of diamond drilling in 9 holes. Metallurgical testing of the uranium ore was done by Placer in 1979. PNC Exploration (Canada) Co. Ltd. conducted wide-spaced drilling in the north part of the deposit.

The deposit is underlain by hornblende-biotite granodiorite orthogneiss of the Upper Proterozoic Shuswap Metamorphic Complex. The deposit occupies the northern part of a southeast trending, structurally-controlled Miocene paleochannel, which overlies the metamorphic rocks. This paleochannel varies in width from 100 to 200 metres and is mineralized for a length of approximately 1000 metres, although ore-grade material is confined to a length of 500 to 600 metres. The average thickness of the deposit is 50 metres. The paleohydrologic gradient from northwest to southeast is about 2 per cent. The basalt formerly covering the deposit has been stripped off as a result of uplift and glaciation and the deposit is now covered by relatively impermeable beds of varved clay and glacial till. The olivine basalt and the fluvial sediments of the Miocene Chilcotin Group form the plateau basalt.

Conglomerate blankets the basement complex and also comprises thick horizons throughout the sedimentary sequence. Interbedded within the conglomerate units are much thinner horizons of fine to coarse-grained sandstone and minor mudstone. Fragments of slightly decomposed and carbonized wood and other forms of organic material are abundantly scattered throughout the sediments. Organic material within iron sulphide-rich zones of the deposit has been completely broken down to form humic acids, which have precipitated together with uranium in voids within the conglomerate.

Although marcasite is scattered throughout the mineralized paleochannel, there are two zones, corresponding to two small depressions in the basement complex, where marcasite is in sufficient quantity to cement the conglomerate.

Ningyoite, gummite and autunite are reported. It occurs mainly as star-shaped concretions and accretionary masses surrounding clasts and marcasite grains in carbonaceous filled voids. The uranium content of the sediments gradually increases with depth, the basal conglomerate often containing more than 0.1 per cent uranium.

Ore reserves of the southern part of the deposit are estimated at 2,055,697 tonnes averaging 0.031 per cent uranium (grade stated as 0.0366 per cent U3O8) (Paper 1979-6). Reserves of the northern part are estimated, by wide-spaced drilling, at over 1,000,000 tonnes of 0.017 per cent uranium (grade stated as 0.02 per cent U3O8) (Paper 1979-6). Conversion used for U3O8 to uranium is 0.848.