Why was the octahedron chosen as the logo for Kennecott Minerals Company? The answer lies in the minerals that we mine and their crystal structure. A crystal is simply the normal form assumed by a chemical compound when it passes to the solid state. Geological scientists have divided crystals into six systems, and our octahedron is part of the cubic, or isometric, system. "Iso" means "equal" and refers to the three crystal axes at right angles to each other and of equal lengths. So what does this have to do with the mines of KMC? Cortez, Rawhide and Ridgeway mine gold ore. Native gold crystallizes in the isometric system, and while individual gold crystals are rare, the most common is the octahedron. Some of the copper ore produced by Flambeau was the mineral bornite, also isometric. At Greens Creek, the dominant ore minerals are auriferous pyrite, galena, sphalerite, tetrahedrite, electrum and native gold-all of which crystallize in the isometric form. The octahedron is a perfect crystal, symmetrical about its three axes with eight identical faces, each an equilateral triangle-an elegant geometrical representation.