President Donald Trump has threatened to destroy a mysterious underground nuclear facility buried so deep in Iran’s Zagros mountains that even America’s most powerful bunker-buster bombs may not reach it.
“We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready,” Trump said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show on Monday. “We’re watching it closely. We see no activity there. They’re not doing well with their nuclear situation. Every time we hear about it, we blow it up.”
The site, known as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, “Pickaxe Mountain” in translation, sits about two kilometers south of the heavily damaged Natanz enrichment facility in central Iran. Satellite imagery shows two large tunnel complexes carved into the mountain, dug since around 2020.
What Makes It Different
Iran already operates underground nuclear facilities. The Fordow enrichment plant is buried under a mountain. But Pickaxe Mountain sits deeper still. Experts at the Institute for Science and International Security estimate the tunnels lie beyond the penetration capability of America’s largest conventional bunker buster, the GBU-57, which can punch through roughly 61 meters (200 feet) of earth or 6 meters (20 feet) of reinforced concrete.
The site could serve multiple purposes: uranium enrichment, centrifuge assembly, or storage of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The Islamic Republic has not publicly disclosed its exact purpose. What is known is that satellite imagery from early 2026 showed a rush to protect the facility from potential American or Israeli attack, including vehicle activity and what analysts described as defensive preparations at the tunnel entrances.
A Target That Survived the War
The United States and Israel have conducted extensive strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure since the war began in February. The June 2025 attack on Natanz used bunker-buster bombs. The Fordow facility has been hit. But Pickaxe Mountain remains intact, as does more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent that was covered in rubble after earlier attacks; material that remains unsecured and unaccounted for.
The Jerusalem Post reported in March that Israeli defense officials declined to provide assurances that either threat would be neutralized before the end of hostilities.
Trump suggested that Pickaxe Mountain would be dealt with soon. “We’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon,” he said. He added that the US would “hit them very hard tonight and we’re going to hit them hard tomorrow. And there’s not a damn thing they can do about it.”
Iran has not responded directly to the Pickaxe Mountain threat. But the country’s Foreign Ministry said Tehran would adhere to “commitment in exchange for commitment,” warning that the Pakistan-mediated understanding with Washington was entering a crisis phase as the US continues to violate the June 17 framework agreement.
The Practical Question
The military question is straightforward: if American bombs cannot reach the tunnels, how does the US take out Pickaxe Mountain? Options include special forces ground operations, repeated precision strikes at tunnel entrances to seal them, or the use of thermobaric weapons. None of these are clean or guaranteed. All of them carry risks of escalation that the White House appears willing to accept.
What is less clear is whether destroying Pickaxe Mountain would actually end Iran’s nuclear program, or simply confirm that the only way to survive an American bombing campaign is to build deeper, harder, and in more places.
Source: Al Jazeera, India Today, Al-Monitor, Jerusalem Post, Reuters