Yesterday Venus got in the news for the chemical composition of its surface. Let's follow up today with the most valuable mineral on that planet: Fluorapatite. This is where the farms get phosphorous. No phosphorous, no farm. No farm, no food. No food... no investors.
People tell me the clouds might bear some phosphoric anhydride but if so, not in any useful quantity. I am afraid this is going to have to come up from below. Herewith I invoke The Law Of Boldface : Prospecting for fluorapatite or at least apatite is the highest priority for a Venus colony. I'd look seriously at the western "paterae" of the Lakshmi Planum - although, before we dig into those volcanoes directly(!), I'd first check if they deposit their treasures for us, on the side of Maxwell to their east.
Wherever there is fluorapatite, there is a Sabatier on the ground to serve its miners, and a flying tethered port above. That port exposes powdered fluorapatite to the outside. This process retrieves calcium sulfate, hydrogen fluoride (in the form of concentrated acid), and phosphoric acid.
Most exports go on to the floating cities, but they do use the hydrofluoric acid back down in the mine.
Note that “calcium sulfate” here includes all the solid impurities of this ore, of which uranium is the most precious.
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