Pacific Steel Group’s Mojave Micro Mill, the first steel mill to break ground in California in more than 50 years, is slated to open next year in Kern County and bring 700 new jobs, Gov. ’s office said Oct. 19, 2026.
The 500,000-square-foot mill will melt locally sourced scrap in an electric arc furnace powered by on-site solar and battery storage, producing about 380,000 tons of seismic-grade rebar per year with “zero process emissions,” the release said. A 63-acre solar farm on the site will provide power, and the governor’s office called it the first solar-powered steel mill in the United States.
Construction began in March 2025, when state officials and local leaders joined Pacific Steel to celebrate the groundbreaking, according to a governor’s office release at the time. Kern County planning documents place the roughly 174-acre site at Sopp Road and Sierra Highway, about eight miles southeast of the unincorporated community of Mojave, with Edwards Air Force Base to the east.
The project received a $30 million tax credit from the state’s California Competes program. In exchange, the company committed to more than $540 million in capital investments and nearly 450 new jobs in the mill’s first five years of operation, the release said.
The California Energy Commission approved up to $14 million for a 32-megawatt-hour long-duration battery to store the mill’s solar power and keep it running through outages, and the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority approved a sales and use tax exclusion worth up to $10 million on the mill’s manufacturing equipment.
The governor’s office said the mill will hire computer system engineers, millwrights, welders, electricians, and automation and robotics specialists. Pacific Steel is working with California State University, Bakersfield, the Kern Community College District and Antelope Valley Community College to establish employment pathways, including a certificate program to prepare students for steel manufacturing careers.
“We’re bringing good-paying jobs and one of the nation’s biggest new steel mills to Kern County,” Newsom said in the release, calling the project “more opportunity, cleaner industry, and growth that works for the people who live here.”
The governor’s office presented the mill as part of its California Jobs First program, which it said has supported 333 early-stage projects. Jobs First investments totaled nearly $1.6 billion across all 13 regions in 2025, the release said.
State
Gavin Newsom
Governor · Democrat
Named 2 times in this story.
Portrait: Official portrait
Sources & methodology
This report was written from the primary materials below. Links open at the original publisher.
Office of the Governor of California Office of the Governor of California (March 2025 groundbreaking release) Kern County via CEQAnet: Mojave Micro Mill environmental reviewSee something we should correct? Read our corrections policy.