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<br /> <br />The CF&I lease to MCR was not renewed in writing. <br />However, in a June 21, 1994, letter, Robert Delaney, as General <br />Counsel for Pitkin, asserts that the lease was automatically <br />renewed at the end of its primary terns, subject to the right of <br />CF&I to adjust royalties at that time. To support this assertion <br />he attached to his letter a copy of a December 15, 1992, letter <br />to Colorado Fuel & Iron, CFI, from Pitkin's Comptroller. The <br />letter accounts for limestone mined from February through October <br />1992, and transmits a royalty payment. Mr. Delaney's letter, and <br />the letter attached thereto, are included as Attachment 11. <br />On October 5, 1992, Congress enacted the Department of <br />the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 1993 <br />(DIRAAA) 106 Stat. 1374. Pursuant to that Act, the owner of an <br />unpatented mining claim had to pay to the BLM a "claim rental <br />fee" amounting to $200 "in lieu of the assessment work <br />requirements contained in the Mining Law of 1872 on or <br />before August 31, 1993 in order for the claimant to hold such <br />unpatented mining claim." The Act provided that a failure to pay <br />the annual fee as required "shall conclusively constitute an <br />abandonment of the unpatented mining claim" for which they should <br />have been paid. 106 Stat. 1378-79. <br />Under the terms of the CF&I lease to MCR, and the <br />Agreement between MCR and Pitkin, Pitkin had the obligation to do <br />the assessment work for the Tiger, Lynx, and Lion claims and, for <br />this reason, to pay the rental fees in lieu of performing <br />6 <br />