a few months later on similar grounds, that Global failed to exhaust administrative remedies.[1]
In May 1982 the State of Florida, its Governor, Senators, and several environmental groups filed two separate complaints in the Middle District of Florida District Court (State of Florida v. Watt, Civil Nos. 82-421 and 82-423). Those plaintiffs sought to enjoin the Interior Secretary from processing applications for phosphate leases, from rendering any determination of whether lease applicants complied with all statutory requirements, and from issuing leases until such time as the federal officials prepared final lease stipulations which met the essential requirements of law and were based upon scientific evidence concerning the success of restoration of affected lands in the Forest. The Florida District Court dismissed the complaints, ruling that the proper course tofollow was to permit the Interior Secretary to determine, without judicial intervention, whether a valuable phosphate deposit existedagain allowing the administrative process to run its course.

C.
Aside from the above litigation, the plaintiffs and several other companies concerned with phosphate exploration and mining in Osceola, have pursued their efforts to secure mining leases from the government for 20 years or more. A brief account of those developments provides a better understanding of the issues involved.
The key to the issuance of a phosphate lease is governed by an interpretation of the phrase "valuable deposit of phosphate" within the meaning of the Mineral Leasing Act, 30 U.S.C. § 211(b). From 1960 and extending through 1970, the determination as to whether a phosphate prospecting permittee had discovered valuable deposits was undertaken by