Iranian crews have spent six years digging into a mountain on the Central Plateau. Its name now surfaces in nearly every threat Washington aims at Tehran.
Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, known as Pickaxe Mountain, lies on the south side of the Natanz nuclear enrichment site. The complex covers 2.7 square kilometres (1 square mile) of arid terrain.
Anti-aircraft batteries, fencing and the Revolutionary Guard protect the compound. Satellite imagery shows two pairs of entrances and a security wall finished recently.
A 2023 Associated Press story drew on analysts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
They put the facility between 80 metres (260 feet) and 100 metres (328 feet) below the surface. Digging has continued since, and some experts believe it now reaches deeper.
The Institute for Science and International Security, known as ISIS, dates the start of construction to 2020. That year, Iranian authorities reported an explosion at Natanz and blamed sabotage.
In September, Iran’s then nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, described a “modern, larger and more comprehensive hall in all dimensions in the heart of the mountain near Natanz.” He said it would produce advanced centrifuges.
Experts say the project’s size suggests Iran could enrich uranium there as well as build centrifuges.
Unproven allegations claim some of Tehran’s highly enriched uranium sits inside. Recent satellite images appear to show new construction.
American forces struck Natanz during Operation Midnight Hammer, part of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in 2025.
Pickaxe Mountain remains one of the few sites tied to Iran’s nuclear program that US and Israeli strikes have not hit.
The Pentagon built the GBU-57 bomb for targets like this one. The American military says it can bore through at least 60 metres (200 feet) of earth before detonating.
US planes used a related weapon, the massive ordnance penetrator, against Natanz and Fordow.
Trump floated a different option in October. He threatened to use the massive ordnance air blast bomb, the “mother of all bombs,” on the site.
The weapon weighs 21,000 pounds, too heavy for traditional bombers. A slow-moving C-130 cargo plane would have to carry it, and flying one deep into Iran would carry risk.
Iran has changed the ground in the meantime.
According to the ISIS thinktank, a pair of eastern tunnel portals has been hardened and partially backfilled to stop ground vehicles, though not sealed completely.
Sam Lair, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Reuters that stronger entrances would complicate “targeting with penetrating munitions like bunker busters.”
ISIS has named possible targets.
“An attack on Pickaxe Mountain could target the above-ground incoming power supply lines, the location of ventilation shafts [the targets in the attacks in June last year] and the open tunnel entrances,” the institute said.
The president has addressed the site by name.
“We’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” Trump told reporters on July 21. A week later, on July 28, he said: “I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe. It’s not a big problem – we took out their nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal.”
Trump spoke at an Iowa campaign rally on Sunday, a day after a Saturday call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about whether and when to escalate combat operations against Tehran.
“And the only reason why I’m not finished with Iran is I want to be nice. I want to try and save all those lives if I can… But at some point we’re going to have to give them the hammer,” he told supporters.
Earlier this week on Fox News, he framed the choice this way: “I have a decision to make. Do I finish it off, which would be very easy to do, or do I make a deal?”
The remarks arrive in the final days of the US midterm campaign. Voter frustration over high energy and commodity prices, which stem from the conflict, is driving the race.
Former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson, a conservative podcaster, has now offered his own forecast. He claims Trump may be days away from a nuclear strike on Pickaxe Mountain.
Carlson posted on X, where he has 17.9 million followers: “After the first nuclear strike, World War Three is inevitable. That war would be short and final.” The post has drawn 28.1 million views.
Carlson said Netanyahu is pushing for such a strike. He described the Israeli leader as “cornered and desperate” after an election in which Netanyahu lost his majority.
Carlson cited no documents. He relied on an unnamed “informed observer,” quoting that person as saying, “Bibi calls Trump about it every day.”
Neither the United States nor Israel has confirmed a strike plan. The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
Iran rejects the premise. Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has said “no nuclear activity is taking place” at Pickaxe Mountain.
He called US threats “a fabricated pretext for aggression, destruction, and sabotage.”
