: 2 [3]: 205 [4] Since 1901, the geology of Chagai Hills have been studied first by the European geologists and later by Pakistani geologists since 1960.: 32 [8] The Chagai Hills are mostly granite mountains, some with average height of 200 m (660 ft): 32 [8] The Pakistani investigations discovered the occurrences of copper, iron, zinc, molybdenum, sulfur, and limestones, the travertine, which is an interest of economic importance.

[9] The fission carbon dating studies were first conducted on rocks and geological structure in 1997, which provided the age of Chagai Hills in Miocene-Late Pleistocene period.

[13][14] The Chagai Hills were relatively unknown area of interests where only scientific studies on its geological structure was carried out by the Pakistan government until 1994.

[4] The Chagai Hills received its prominence and significant attention when it was incorrectly mentioned as nuclear test site in a text, Critical Mass, published by American authors William E. Burrows and Robert Windrem in 1994.: 61–83 [15] With Pakistani administrations following the policy of deliberate ambiguity, the Chagai Hills were continuously suspected as a nuclear test site by the Western media outlets.

[14] Despite widely international media reporting and the local anti–nuclear protests being staged, there has been no radioactivity nor any nuclear weapon test activity that has ever taken place in the Chagai Hills albeit scientific studies on volcanology and hydrology.