This paper introduces several notions and a collection of manuscripts compiled for a special section of The Extractive Industries and Society on the temporal and spatial trajectories of mining territories. These papers were developed from presentations delivered at two international conferences held in 2018: the TRAMIN (“Socio-environmental Trajectories of Mining Territories”) conference and the Social Geology session at the RFG (“Resources for Future Generations”) conference, that took place respectively in Chambéry (France) and Vancouver (Canada). The introduction paper situates these pieces in the wider literature, exploring the connections between mineral resources and the development of societies that exploit, transform and sell them. It also argues that using a polyphonic notion such as “trajectories” allows for the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach leading to key insights on sustainability for mining territories.