Our Commitment

From the time, you place your order to when the aluminum is used, we are with you every step of the way. From our Metallurgists who are ready to design an alloy for your special needs to our customer service reps that will be at your site when our metal runs and everyone in between, we pride ourselves in unmatched customer care.

Company History

Golden Aluminum was established in 1980 by the Coors Brewing Company. Its visionary mission was to develop an Aluminum alloy and a manufacturing process that could provide Coors with a complete Aluminum can (body, lid and tab) from a single alloy made from recycled beverage cans. Contrary to all normal Aluminum industry practices at that time Bill Coors set out to make the closed-loop life cycle concept a reality. Select timeline dates for more details.

Bill Coors Sr. Carries out his dream.

Bill Coors Sr. decides to act on his a dream to develop a 100% recyclable aluminum can and Golden Aluminum is founded.

First of its kind continuous block caster.

In Fort Lupton Colorado an old bread factory is converted to an aluminum mill with the first of its kind continuous block caster, that can turn recycled cans into new aluminum sheet.

Global exports begin.

The company goes global and starts export shipments to Asia and Europe.

Golden diversifies

Golden diversifies its product offering beyond the 5000 series alloys by offering products made of AA 3004 alloy

GA enters the food packaging business.

Coors enters into a two year agreement for Crown Cork and Seal to operate Golden Aluminun to provide aluminum stock to its food packaging plants in addition to Coor’s can plant.  This was a key moment in our entry into the food packaging business.

Purchased by Golden Metals Inc

Golden Aluminum is purchased by Golden Metals Inc, a small investment group led by the Lorentzen family with roots in Iowa and experience in the Aluminum casting industry.  Leland Lorentzen is made President and CEO.

Reinvention

GA reinvents itself by implementing JIT and lean manufacturing reducing average delivery time by 33%.

Infinity Alloy Series introduced

AA5016 the first member of Infinity Alloy Series is introduced.  Made from more than 75% recycled beverage cans it is the highest recycled content aluminum alloy in the world.

Aggressive entry into the automotive supply chain

A new initiative to market and supply to the automotive industry is started.  After only a few months and meetings with the OEM’s the first sale is made into the automotive supply chain.

A new R&D effort

A new R&D effort results in the successful casting of the first 6000 series alloy.

The Plant

We welcome you to come visit our facility to see our process first hand. Since that is normally not very practical, we offer a short video tour.

A UNIQUE PROCESS

  • recycled beverage cans to remake aluminum
    Recycled Cans

    When Bill Coors wanted to use recycled beverage cans to remake aluminum he had to find and implement a new process. The industry at that time only made cans from raw aluminum.

  • aluminum block caster
    Discovering the Block Caster

    In Austria Bill Coors discovered a pair of brothers inventing the Lauener Block Caster.

  • cooling and solidifying aluminum sheet
    Solidification Process

    The block caster uses tracks of copper coated steel blocks on tracks to cool and solidify the aluminum into a sheet.

  • block casting breakthrough
    Creating Aluminum Sheet

    The block concept was a breakthrough in thinking vs previous belt concepts as the blocks had the thermal mass and rigidity to produce a sheet of consistent structure while running at a relatively high speed.

  • block caster facility san antonio texas
    A New Block Caster Facility

    Based on several years of successful production of 762mm wide aluminum sheet at the Fort Lupton facility, in the mid 1990’s Coors invested $350M in a wide sheet  (1676mm) block caster facility in San Antonio, TX to produce can body sheet and engineered plans for a 2133mm/84” wide future plant to be built in Australia.  During the two year period from 1997 to 1998 the San Antonio plant produced ~20,000 metric tons of can body and end sheet for Coors and Crown.    

  • golden aluminum block caster
    World-Renowned Block Caster

    With over 30 years of operation producing well over a billion pounds of Aluminum the Golden Aluminum Block Caster is by far the most successful block caster in the world