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<br />assessment work for those claims. Its failure to do so caused <br />those claims to be abandoned as a matter of law. <br />By a decision dated October 22, 1993, the BLM notified <br />CF&I that 70 of its unpatented claims, including the Tiger 2-6, <br />Lynx 2-6, and Lion 2-6 claims, had been abandoned as a matter of <br />law ae of September 1, 1993, because the rental fees had not been <br />paid as required by the DIRAAA, supra. The abandonment of the <br />claims terminated the CF&I lease to MCR and the sub-lease to <br />Pitkin. After August 31, 1993, the leased unpatented claims no <br />longer existed. <br />On October 21, 1993, while the land upon which the <br />Quarry is located was unencumbered by any mining claims, the BLM <br />established a "community pit." The community pit encompasses <br />about 210 acres, including the land upon which are located the <br />quarry and the stockpiles of materials accumulated as a result of <br />the mining and processing of locatable limestone from the Tiger, <br />Lynx, and Lion claims. 2/ <br />2/ The regulation 43 C.F.R. § 3600.0-5(e) defines "mineral <br />material" as including, but not limited to, "common varieties of <br />sand, stone, gravel, pumice, pumicite, cinders, clay and other <br />mineral materials and petrified wood.' The regulation 43 C.F.R. <br />§ 3604.1 (b) provides that "[t]he designation of a community pit <br />site constitutes a superior right to remove the [mineral] <br />material as against any subsequent claim or entry of the lands.^ <br />In United States v. Michael R. Ware, 113 IBLA 1, 2 fn. 1 '(1990), <br />the Board noted that certain lands "were closed to mineral entry <br />by a community pit designation." However, in Robert L. <br />Mendenhall et al., 127 IBLA 73, 75 (1993), the Board affirmed a <br />BLM decision which had held, among other things, that "while <br />`mining claims may be located over a community pit, * • * the <br />claimant's rights do not attach until the community pit is <br />terminated.'" The Board concluded that, pursuant to the <br />regulation 43 C.P.R. § 3604.1(b), the designation of land as a <br />community pit "constituted a `superior right' to remove the <br />7 <br />