{"id":704675,"date":"2026-07-22T05:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T05:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/704675\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T05:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T05:18:10","slug":"what-is-pickaxe-mountain-irans-underground-nuclear-facility-trump-is-threatening-to-attack-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/704675\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Pickaxe Mountain, Iran\u2019s underground nuclear facility Trump is threatening to attack? | Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the conflict between the US and Iran facing its most sustained outbreak of violence since a ceasefire was agreed in April, Donald Trump<\/a> has returned to threatening Iranian nuclear sites.<\/p>\n

The current run of US strikes is aimed at forcing Iran<\/a> to reopen the strait of Hormuz, but in comments on Tuesday, the president said that his administration remained committed to stopping Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, and reiterated threats against a site linked to the country\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

Referring to Pickaxe Mountain \u2013 known in Iran as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, a fortified underground site near one of the country\u2019s primary nuclear enrichment facilities \u2013 Trump told reporters that the military would be \u201chitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we know about Pickaxe Mountain.<\/p>\n

Where is Pickaxe Mountain?<\/p>\n

Pickaxe Mountain is \u2060located 220km (140 miles) south of \u2060Tehran and 2km (1.2 miles) from the \u200bNatanz nuclear facility. The Natanz site,<\/a> where two of Iran\u2019s uranium enrichment plants are located, has been bombed before<\/a>; during the war started by the US and Israel on 28 February, and during the 12-day war of 2025.<\/p>\n

Little is known about the complex located inside the mountain, but experts believe it is still under construction and estimate it is buried almost 100 metres inside the mountain.<\/p>\n

The facility at Pickaxe Mountain was not targeted in either of the rounds of US-Israeli strikes in 2025 and 2026, according to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US-based thinktank focused on nuclear non-proliferation.<\/p>\n

What is the history of Pickaxe Mountain?<\/p>\n

Construction of the facility at \u200cPickaxe Mountain began in 2020, according to the ISIS thinktank, after \u200cwhat Iranian authorities reported at the time as an explosion caused by an act of sabotage at the Natanz facility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iran said at the time the Natanz sabotage had caused significant damage, and in September of that year, Iran\u2019s then nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the country had started building a \u201cmodern, larger and more comprehensive hall in all dimensions in the heart of the mountain near Natanz\u201d for making advanced centrifuges. These machines spin uranium at high speeds to enrich it and produce nuclear fuel.<\/p>\n

Rafael Grossi, the 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was part of their quite systematic intention to put their most sensitive facilities underground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What has Iran built at Pickaxe Mountain?<\/p>\n

The ISIS thinktank, which has analysed satellite imagery of the site, says it features two pairs of entrances and that a security wall around the facility was recently completed.<\/p>\n

A satellite view shows vehicles at an entrance to the Pickaxe Mountain tunnels. Photograph: VANTOR\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Since the US and Israel began launching strikes, a pair of eastern tunnel portal entrances has been hardened and partially backfilled to obstruct ground vehicle access, but they have not been \u200bsealed fully, the thinktank reports.<\/p>\n

Sam Lair, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, who also reviewed recent satellite imagery of the site, told Reuters that increasing the strength of the tunnel entrances would complicate \u201ctargeting with penetrating munitions like bunker busters\u201d.<\/p>\n

Is Pickaxe Mountain functioning and what could it be used for?<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s threats to target the mountain earlier this month also included an admission from the president that US intelligence sees \u201cno activity there\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not doing well with their nuclear situation. Every time we hear about it, we blow it up. So they don\u2019t like talking about it. But we\u2019ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ISIS thintank, \u2060in its report, said its assessment \u201cis that the facility is not yet operational, but construction continues\u201d, and that it was unclear when \u200bit could be operational, based on satellite imagery alone.<\/p>\n

The thinktank says it is also unclear \u200bif Iran still plans on installing a large-scale assembly facility there.<\/p>\n

\u201cNonetheless, if Iran starts to rebuild its centrifuge manufacturing \u200bcapability, it could plan to install \u200ca smaller centrifuge assembly facility in \u200bPickaxe Mountain able to serve a nuclear weapons \u200bprogram,\u201d the ISIS report said.<\/p>\n

How might Pickaxe Mountain be attacked?<\/p>\n

Experts assess the deeply buried complex as being beyond the reach of the most powerful bunker buster bombs in the US arsenal. Aerial attacks also carry a degree of uncertainty, because assessing their effectiveness can be difficult without on-the-ground intelligence. A Pentagon report issued after the US launched strikes on Iran\u2019s nuclear sites in 2025 said the damage caused likely set back the nuclear program by one to two years<\/a>, but that conclusion came with a large amount of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

The ISIS thinktank said the site \u201cwould be more suitable for ground forces to attack or sabotage \u2026 however, vulnerabilities may also exist that can be exploited by deep earth penetrating weapons via aerial attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deployment of ground operations<\/a> have so far been a red line for Trump and there has been no suggestion that he is any closer to considering such a move, even after the recent escalation between the US and Iran.<\/p>\n

Lair said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the conflict between the US and Iran facing its most sustained outbreak of violence since a ceasefire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-704675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}