As in many technological and industrial sectors, mining exploration and extraction rely on instruments designed to anticipate and organize future developments and their consequences. In this article, we focus on three ways of mobilizing the future in the context of these activities and their contestation. Investment is characterized by the calculation of future profits and the central place given to risks that are likely to threaten them. Anticipation combines the appraisal of extractive activity with wider considerations likely to give rise to new questions and a different definition of risks. Planning consists in organizing mining activity according to objectives to be achieved, such as territorial development. Building on fieldwork in metropolitan France, New Caledonia, and French Guiana, this article shows that an analysis of the mobilization of the future makes it possible to rethink the well-known problem of the relations between mining companies, environment and the affected populations.