Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain is in Trump’s sights — but attacking it is difficult, experts warn

Iran’s hidden fortress known as Pickaxe Mountain has become a prime target for President Trump amid concerns the regime is building it into an underground nuclear site — but attacking the mysterious facility will be extremely difficult, experts say.

The commander in chief warned Tuesday that Pickaxe Mountain would be targeted “pretty soon”, after the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Israeli intelligence, that nuclear centrifuges were spotted arriving at the secretive fortress for the first time since its construction began in 2020.

The alarming report likely gives the administration the push it needed to target the site buried deep under a mountain after leaving it alone during the current conflict and last year’s war, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program.

“The administration was likely waiting for fission material to appear at the site to make it clear that an attack is a counter against Iran’s proliferation efforts,” Taleblu told The Post.

“This is the big target left standing and shows that the job is unfinished,” he added, referencing the US attacks on Iran’s three other nuclear enrichment facilities.

The full activity at the facility, buried at least 328 feet under the Kolang Mountain, has remained a mystery, but its location near the Natanz nuclear facility has raised alarms throughout the years.

While there had previously never been any indication of nuclear activity at the site, which Trump previously referenced as his reason for leaving it alone in past attacks, experts have warned that Iran cannot be trusted.

“Pickaxe Mountain is large enough to also hold a centrifuge enrichment plant and likely large enough to also hold certain nuclear weaponization activities such as making weapon-grade uranium metal and shaping it into nuclear weapon components,” David Albright, a nuclear weapons expert and founder of the US-based non-profit Institute for Science and International Security, wrote on X.

Iran has repeatedly denied such allegations, with Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei insisting on Wednesday that “Washington’s obsessive focus on Kolang Kouh where no nuclear activity is taking place is nothing more than a fabricated pretext for aggression, destruction, and sabotage.”

Albright, however, noted that while there is still no evidence that enrichment is currently occurring at the site, Iran’s intentions to do so eventually have become clear with the introduction of centrifuges.

“The US and Israel need to shut down the entire site, whether through diplomacy or strikes,” Albright concluded.

But striking the site will be difficult.

James Acton, who co-leads the Carnegie Endowment’s nuclear policy work, said the previous 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs the US used to strike Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan nuclear sites will not work on Pickaxe due to how deep it’s buried.

The GBU-57 is capable of penetrating up to 200 feet underground before exploding, some 130 feet above where Pickaxe is buried.

“The US does not have strong enough penetrators for Pickaxe Mountain,” Acton wrote on X, adding that the site also lacks the same vulnerabilities of exposed ventilators and air shafts that America took advantage of when hitting other nuclear facilities.

The US could opt to attack the base’s entrances and bury it as it did with Iran’s missile facilities, but the Islamic republic has proved it can dig out its bases, Taleblu said.

“For anyone really worried about Pickaxe Mountain, take solace in that there is always a bigger bomb,” he added.