Gypsum's applications
Gypsum is a particularly useful processed material. Its main application is as a building material, mostly produced as so-called plaster of Paris for plastering walls and making decorative features in buildings. However gypsum also has a diversity of other uses including making writing chalk, soil conditioning for agriculture, making moulds for pottery, as an additive in the manufacture of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), in surgical splints, in increasing the hardness of water, as an additive in certain foods such as tofu and in some types of medicines and pharmaceuticals.