Drift and bedrock relationships seen in the mine wall suggest a diamict was emplaced by subglacial processes not previously documented elsewhere in the glaciated parts of the Canadian Interior Plains region. The mine trench (5 km long, 200 m wide, 35 m deep) exposed a massive clay diamict more than 20 m thick emplaced within channel-like excavations cut into Late Tertiary gravel and sand. Contacts outline a highly irregular bedrock surface marked by flame-like extensions of sandy bedrock stringers and wedges into the diamict. The sequence is interpreted as initial subglacial meltwater incision into a frozen bedrock substrate with subsequent infilling by a highly viscous diamict flowing along the channel.

The flame-like structures appear to reflect subsequent diapiric processes. Airphotos show that the diamict forms a hummocky moraine fill within a buried channel about a kilometer wide separating ground moraine and bedrock surfaces. Similar "buried" channels occur along the margins of hummocky moraines elsewhere in the prairies and may have formed by similar subglacial processes.