Mining is quite a risky profession and miners are always at a high risk of accidents in mines. Malmberget mine in Sweden has been using RFID for improving the safety of the worker and that too since the year 2003. The mine safety system was provided by Wtek. This is how the system works.

In the mine several access points are installed at strategic locations. Whenever a worker comes within the reading range of the Access Point, he gets recognized and registered as he is equipped with an active RFID tag. With the maximum range being hundred metres, registration at high speeds is also easy.

The system offers a host of other benefits besides tracking of miners:

• A "work alone" feature allows workers to be given a deadline as of when they must have exited the mine. If they have not left before this deadline, an alarm will be triggered.

• Access control schedules allow alarms to be sent out when unauthorized workers reside in an undesired area.

• Automatic routing of alarms to the correct recipient, converts "alarm-time" into "rescue-time".

• A map edit tool, allows for the placement of physical components on the same map background as the worker whereabouts are displayed. This provides instant visual indication whenever connections or main power supplies are lost.

Certainly this system is of great help during mine accidents. If a mishap happens the flight recorder flashes the number and last location of the miners. At the time of an accident it really becomes difficult to pin point the location of the miners trapped and this hampers the rescue operations. This system is certainly a boon for the mining industry which is always at a risk of accidents and a number of precious lives could be saved if timely action is taken. It wouldn't be wrong if I call RFID a life saving device after this.