 The Continental Pit, the last active Anaconda mining property in Butte, was closed in 1982.Six years after ARCO acquired rights to the "Richest Hill on Earth", Butte's mines were completely idle.ARCO founder, Robert Orville Anderson, stated "he hoped Anaconda's resources and expertise would help him launch a major shale-oil venture, but that the world oil glut and the declining price of petroleum made shale oil moot."