RTLS in foundries for worker and asset safety
RTLS solution for safety in a foundry, tracking movements of workers and items in a risky work environment
World leader in precious metal refining
Valcambi is a world leader in the refining of precious metals. With headquarters in Balerna (Switzerland), the company has been in existence since 1961 and it manages one of the largest and most efficient integrated precious metal plants in the world, with an annual refining capacity of up to 2,000 tonnes. The company refines gold, silver, platinum and palladium and offers a vast range of extremely high quality products and services.
Valcambi is fully owned by Global Gold Refineries Ltd (GGR) Inc., which in turn is owned by Rajesh Export Limited India.
High-accuracy indoor tracking for security, access control and emergency management in complex industrial environments
Valcambi processes 1,400 tonnes of raw gold every year and it is exposed to the risk elements typical of a large foundry, as well as the security problems deriving from the value of the materials being processed. For this reason, the company wanted to install a solution for tracking people which could guarantee the safety of employees and visitors and control the accesses and movements inside the various areas of the factory.
It was necessary to be able to accurately identify the area inside of which a person was located (with a maximum error tolerated of just a few metres): the localization environment is very complex as it is almost completely indoors and is very diversified from the point of view of the various buildings and the different levels. There are also large metal masses, machinery which generates electromagnetic interferences, security doors, narrow corridors and large areas with walkways, latticework and metal ladders.
The functions requested, as well as tracking, were management of evacuations, monitoring of use of the device (which must never be abandoned, for obvious security reasons), access control by integration with passive RFID technology of another supplier, possibility di displaying historical routes and consultation in privacy mode. The position updating frequency requested by the customer was 4 times a minute.
Advanced RTLS with BLE and RFID for reliable location tracking, access control and operational security
Ubiquicom and its partner ATON set up a direct localization system based on a customisation of the uTag2 tags and on the Ubiquicom Safety Locator platform.
The uTag2, which integrates WiFi and BLE technologies, is equipped with movement sensor, accelerometers and rechargeable lithium battery. For the Valcambi project, the 300 tags provided have also been integrated with 2 passive technologies (one UHF and one LF) to manage access control to the various areas and monitoring of the uTags leaving the factory.
The communication period was set at 15 seconds and alarms were configured for any tampering with the tags (tamper sensor), lack of communication with the tag for more than a minute, disconnection of the battery and a prolonged absence of movement (the tag probably being abandoned by the person) with the exclusion of environments in which the possibility of returning the tag is planned.
Approximately 400 BLE beacons have been installed in the factory powered by the mains supply and protected by a UPS unit. A cabinet has also been fitted at the entrance to the factory with 300 boxes for the recharging, with electrically controlled opening, which are used for storing the tags when not in use and to carry out the charging.
Advanced RTLS with BLE and RFID for RTLS compliant with security requirements for access, evacuation and personnel monitoring
The required location quality was achieved after a long testing and inspection phase and the solution is currently used for
- managing access controls,
- carrying out evacuation
- monitoring movements of individuals.
The data is automatically deleted and remains stored only for the period of time necessary to manage any violations of the internal safety procedures.
Thanks to the precious collaboration and contribution of Aton and Valcambi, the uTag2 has been customised to satisfy further functional requirements in the safety sector.
Questions and insights
Valcambi is one of the world's leading precious metals refineries, headquartered in Balerna, Switzerland. The company refines gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, producing investment-grade bullion bars, coins, and customized products for banks, financial institutions, and industrial clients globally.
In an environment where the value of materials in process at any moment can reach hundreds of millions of dollars, the ability to know exactly where every asset, container, and person is located at all times is both a security imperative and an operational requirement.
Valcambi implemented Ubiquicom's RTLS system to achieve real-time visibility of personnel and assets across its high-security refinery campus, strengthening both security controls and operational efficiency simultaneously.
In a precious metals refinery, the consequences of a security breach or process failure are exceptionally severe due to the extreme value of materials in process.
Before the Ubiquicom deployment, verifying the real-time location of personnel and assets within the refinery's secured zones required manual checks and physical access controls that created bottlenecks and left gaps in accountability. The system needed to answer questions like: which personnel are currently authorized to be in a specific high-security area, how long have they been there, and is every tracked asset container where it is supposed to be at each point in the refining process?
Ubiquicom's RTLS platform provided automated, real-time answers to these questions, enabling security and operations teams to manage the facility with a higher degree of confidence and auditability.
Ubiquicom deployed its Locator RTLS platform based on Ultra-Wideband technology at Valcambi's refinery.
UWB was selected for this deployment because of its high-accuracy positioning capability — precise to within 10-30 centimeters — and its robustness in environments with significant metallic infrastructure, including the high-density industrial equipment and shielded areas typical of a precious metals processing facility.
Personnel wore compact UWB tags that reported their real-time positions throughout the facility. Asset containers and processing units were also equipped with tags to provide continuous location data through each stage of the refining process.
The system was integrated with Valcambi's existing access control and security management infrastructure to provide a unified operational security picture.
RTLS personnel tracking in a high-security environment uses UWB or BLE-based wearable tags carried by each authorized individual to provide continuous position data throughout the facility.
The system maps each person's real-time position against the facility floor plan and applies a set of configurable access rules: which personnel are authorized to enter specific zones, maximum permitted dwell times in high-security areas, and automatic alerts when an unauthorized individual enters a restricted zone or when a person has not exited a sensitive area within the expected time window.
The system generates a complete, timestamped movement log for every individual during every shift, creating an unalterable audit record. GDPR-compliant data handling ensures that personnel data is managed in accordance with applicable privacy regulations while maintaining the security information needed for operational accountability.
The Ubiquicom RTLS deployment at Valcambi delivered improvements in both security governance and operational efficiency at the refinery. Security managers gained real-time awareness of all personnel and asset movements within secured zones, replacing time-consuming manual verification with automated continuous monitoring.
The system's audit trail provided a complete record of all access events and movements, strengthening the chain of custody for precious materials through every processing stage and supporting both internal compliance audits and external regulatory reviews.
Operationally, the ability to locate personnel and assets instantly improved coordination between production teams, reduced time spent locating equipment and materials, and supported more accurate scheduling of refining processes based on real-time visibility into each stage's progress.
Ubiquicom addresses data privacy and GDPR compliance in personnel tracking deployments through a combination of technical measures and implementation best practices.
Individual-level positioning data can be anonymized for aggregate operational analysis, with individual-identified data accessible only to authorized security and HR personnel with a legitimate need. Data retention periods are configurable to comply with the minimum necessary principle under GDPR. Access controls within the Ubiquicom platform restrict which users can view individual location histories.
For enterprise deployments like Valcambi, Ubiquicom works with the customer's legal and HR teams during implementation to ensure the deployment is documented in the required records of processing activities, and that the purposes and legal basis for location data processing are clearly defined and communicated to affected employees in accordance with applicable labor and privacy law.
Ubiquicom's RTLS platform is well-suited to high-value, high-security industrial environments for several reasons. UWB technology provides the centimeter-level precision needed to distinguish between assets and personnel at adjacent workstations or within narrow high-security corridors.
The system architecture supports integration with physical access control systems, alarm management platforms, and security information systems to create a unified security operations picture. All positioning data is stored in a tamper-resistant, timestamped log that provides evidentiary-grade records for security investigations and compliance audits. The platform's configurable alert and escalation system ensures that security events trigger immediate, escalated responses rather than being noticed only during post-incident review.
The Valcambi deployment demonstrates that Ubiquicom can successfully deliver these capabilities in a real-world high-security precious metals environment.