Pickaxe Mountain is a fortified, underground facility in Iran. And this week, not for the first time, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. plans to strike it.
“We’ll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon. There’s not a thing they can do about it. You know, normally I wouldn’t say that. If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that. But we’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” Trump said Tuesday, speaking to the press after meeting with the president of Lebanon.
B-2 Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
B-2 Spirit Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The announcement goes against general military principles about not announcing new initiatives in advance, while also indicating that the president is eying an escalation in the region, rather than attempting to re-establish a ceasefire.
However, it’s also possible that Trump is bluffing about a Pickaxe Mountain attack to encourage more favorable ceasefire terms.
Iran “may have” stored centrifuges there, Trump added. The Wall Street Journal had reported on Tuesday that Israel believes that Iran may have moved nuclear centrifuges into tunnels inside the Pickaxe Mountain facility.
Trump had claimed, earlier in July in a radio interview, that “We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready.”
“We see no activity there. They’re not doing well with their nuclear situation. Every time we hear about it, we blow it up,” he added in the interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“So they don’t like talking about it. But we’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon.”
According to the Journal’s sources, Israel believes the centrifuges were moved last year, following the brief war in June of 2025, after which Trump claimed repeatedly that Iran’s nuclear capability had been “obliterated.”
What is Pickaxe Mountain?
Reuters published an explainer about Pickaxe Mountain after Trump’s comments in the radio interview.
The facility, per Reuters, is located 220 km (140 miles) south of Tehran and 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Natanz nuclear complex, which was bombed during the 2025 war.
“The site is linked to Iran’s nuclear program, which has long caused tension between the West and Iran, which denies seeking an atomic bomb,” the Reuters explainer said.
B-2A, serial #88-0331, ‘Spirit of South Carolina’ of the 509th Bomb Wing, Air Force Global Strike Command, on the parking ramp at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, during a visit April 11, 2017. The B-2A ‘stealth bomber’ visited the base to allow hundreds of personnel who work in direct support of the aircraft program through continuous software upgrades to see it in person and better understand the aircrafts’ role in the nation’s defense. (U.S. Air Force photo/Greg L. Davis)
“Construction of the facility at Pickaxe Mountain began in 2020, according to ISIS, following what Iranian authorities reported at the time as an explosion caused by an act of sabotage at the Natanz facility…Iran said at the time the Natanz sabotage had caused significant damage that could slow the development of advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges.”
It is believed that some type of facility is based at least 100 meters under the mountain itself. The way the facility is set up would make it difficult for even bunker-buster bombs to strike it.
The Institute’s View
In mid-July, around the time of Trump’s comments in the radio interview, the Institute for Science and International Security published an article about “What to Know About Pickaxe Mountain.”
“The large mountain harboring the main tunnel complex is called Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, where Kolang translates to Pickaxe, resulting in today’s nickname of the site,” the authors, David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, Spencer Faragasso, and the Good ISIS Team, wrote of the facility.
“Construction of the Pickaxe Mountain facility started in the fall of 2020, and at the time Iran announced that the underground halls were intended to replace the destroyed above-ground advanced centrifuge assembly facility at the main Natanz site. The destroyed site was designed to assemble about 6000 advanced centrifuges per year, a large capacity, sized to produce the tens of thousands of advanced centrifuges during and after the phasing out of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action limits from 2025 through 2030.”
They were not clear, however, whether the facility is currently operational.
“It remains unclear when Pickaxe Mountain could be operational, based only on assessments of satellite imagery,” the authors write.
“It is also unclear if Iran still plans on installing a large-scale assembly facility, given the destruction of Iran’s centrifuge program, including Iran’s ability to make centrifuge components needed for an assembly plant. Nonetheless, 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.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
