Donald Trump has renewed threats to strike Pickaxe Mountain, an underground Iranian nuclear facility buried nearly 100 metres inside a mountain near Natanz, as US-Iran conflict intensifies. The president stated on Tuesday that the military would be “hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” amid ongoing US strikes aimed at forcing Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Location and Background
Pickaxe Mountain, known in Iran as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, is located 220km (140 miles) south of Tehran and just 2km (1.2 miles) from the Natanz nuclear facility. Natanz houses two uranium enrichment plants and has been bombed before—during the US-Israel war starting 28 February and the 12-day war of 2025. The facility at Pickaxe Mountain was not targeted in either of those strikes, according to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US-based thinktank focused on nuclear non-proliferation.
Construction began in 2020 after an explosion at Natanz, which Iranian authorities reported as an act of sabotage. In September 2020, Iran’s then nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi announced the country was building a “modern, larger and more comprehensive hall in all dimensions in the heart of the mountain near Natanz” for manufacturing advanced centrifuges. Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in March that Iran had previously announced its intention to have nuclear activity at Pickaxe Mountain, calling it “part of their quite systematic intention to put their most sensitive facilities underground.”
Current Status and Capabilities
ISIS has analysed satellite imagery of the site, noting two pairs of entrances and a recently completed security wall. Since US and Israeli strikes began, a pair of eastern tunnel portal entrances has been hardened and partially backfilled to obstruct ground vehicle access, but not fully sealed. Sam Lair, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Reuters that strengthening tunnel entrances would complicate “targeting with penetrating munitions like bunker busters.”
Trump admitted that US intelligence sees “no activity there,” saying, “They’re not doing well with their nuclear situation. Every time we hear about it, we blow it up. So they don’t like talking about it. But we’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon.” ISIS assesses the facility is not yet operational but construction continues, and it is unclear when it could be operational. The thinktank also stated it is unclear if Iran still plans to install a large-scale assembly facility there, but noted that “if Iran starts to rebuild its centrifuge manufacturing capability, it could plan to install a smaller centrifuge assembly facility in Pickaxe Mountain able to serve a nuclear weapons program.”
Attack Challenges
Experts believe the deeply buried complex is beyond the reach of the most powerful US bunker buster bombs. Aerial attacks carry uncertainty due to difficulty assessing effectiveness without ground intelligence. A Pentagon report after 2025 strikes said damage likely set back the nuclear program by one to two years, but with large uncertainty. ISIS stated the site “would be more suitable for ground forces to attack or sabotage … however, vulnerabilities may also exist that can be exploited by deep earth penetrating weapons via aerial attacks.” Ground operations remain a red line for Trump, with no suggestion of considering such a move. Lair concluded: “We can infer that there are ongoing activities at Pickaxe Mountain the Iranians wish to continue, but are still concerned enough about a potential attack that they are taking steps to bolster their defences.”
