Active RFID Solutions To Be Used By Miners

Jan 8, 2008 3:46 PM

VUANCE Ltd., a provider of innovative Radio Frequency Verification Solutions, including active RFID, electronic access control, credentialing and incident response management, has announced that its AAID Active RFID solutions are being implemented by Anglo America's Chilean copper mines to increase safety and productivity.

Recently, a four-month pilot program was launched at Anglo America's El Soldado site in central Chile to provide real-time location information concerning miners inside tunnels. It focused on identifying miners both after normal shift changes and when blasting or emergencies make evacuation necessary to ensure workers safety.

As part of the program, an anti-collision system also was tested where a flashing light and buzzer warned front-loader operators that people or minor vehicles were within a 65-foot safety-zone radius.

Because VUANCE's AAID active tags have long read-ranges, workers do not have to get out of their vehicles to identify themselves, a process that normally causes delays. Further by relying on the accuracy of tag-reading as people enter the working area, rather than the traditional system of having people check in using a card identification system, the site was able to reduce the rate of check-in errors.

VUANCE's local system integrator business partner, RFID Chile, is helping Anglo America with this project. After conducting the pilot and reviewing the positive results, Anglo America decided to incorporate the added safety, productivity and other benefits generated by having a constant inflow of data from Active RFID tags and readers. RFID Chile installing the solutions at other Chilean mines.

"VUANCE works through business partner system integrators to enable users like Anglo American to integrate our technology into their workplaces," says Eyal Tuchman, chief executive officer of VUANCE.

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