The Traces of Nitrate project created a large body of research: a substantial photographic record and critical historical analysis of the sites of nitrate and copper mining in the northern territories of Chile and spaces of the exchange of mined commodities in London and Liverpool. The project team produced, organized or contributed to 33 conferences, lectures and events, 15 exhibitions, 15 publications (including one monograph), and has received 11 reviews (see: http://tracesofnitrate.org) The follow-on phase of the Traces of Nitrate project will draw upon both its photographic documentation and historical analysis of mining to engage new audiences through exhibitions and related public events dispersed across two continents. The dissemination of research relating to the significance of nitrate, a dynamic substance that once used as fertilizer or explosive can speed or shatter life, will be extended and, most importantly, situated within emergent and urgent contemporary debates about the extraction and depletion of non-renewable resources. The political ecology of mining, the legacies of polluted and de-industrialised landscapes and the role of photographic practice in the representation of these issues are key concerns of the follow-on phase. The image and analysis of industrial ruins of nitrate mining in the Atacama Desert and the contamination of Chilean landscape with the detritus of copper mining will be mobilised to instigate discussion of hierarchies of human agency and material resources as well as the dependencies of people and planet.