ROSEMOUNT, MINN. — The Opus Group has broken ground on a $71 million expansion to add new aluminum recycling capabilities at the Spectro Alloys campus in Rosemount, a southern suburb of the Twin Cities. Spectro plans to recycle more end-of-life scrap aluminum to improve recycling rates in Minnesota. The project includes a new 90,000-square-foot building along Highway 55. The first phase of the project will result in nearly 120 million pounds per year of additional recycling capacity and create up to 50 new full-time jobs. The facility will include state-of-the-art equipment for sorting, melting, casting, sawing, homogenizing and packaging with automation and pollution control technology. Spectro’s plant will also provide energy use and carbon emission reductions of 95 percent when compared to new aluminum production.
Aluminum billet is used as raw material for the extrusion process, and is turned into products such as railings, window and door trim, and structural components for cars, boats, airplanes, trailers and docks. Spectro will also have the ability to recycle used beverage containers into sheet ingot — slabs of aluminum weighing up to 60,000 pounds each. Construction of the new facility is slated for completion in mid-2025. Spectro has operated at its Rosemount campus since its founding in 1973 and claims to be the leading Midwest-based aluminum recycler.