Shares in Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) are, once again, the most traded among all those in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) today. However, it's not good news for the lithium miner's shares.
The Pilbara Minerals share price is currently trading at $1.44 – 3.03% lower than Friday's close.
At the time of writing, over 12.3 million Pilbara shares have been traded today. That's approximately $17.7 million worth.
And all that has happened despite Pilbara Minerals releasing no news to the ASX today.
As The Motley Fool reported earlier today, demand for lithium is increasing alongside demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy – 2 sectors that rely on lithium-ion technology. But that doesn't seem to be helping Pilbara shares today.
And it's not only lithium shares investors are fleeing from today. Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) shares are being traded at an impressive rate – with almost 10.7 million having changing hands so far today. The Qantas share price is falling by almost 4% as COVID-19 flares plague Australia once more.
Let's take a look at the last time the market heard from Pilbara Minerals.
The latest news
On Friday, Pilbara Minerals announced the company's board had voted in favour of restarting lithium production at the Ngungaju plant.
Operations at the plant are expected to begin once more in the final quarter of 2021.
The plant will likely produce between 180,000 and 200,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of lithium by the middle of 2022.
According to Pilbara Minerals, that will result in a significant increase in its Pilgangoora project's production, which is set to increase from 560,000 dmt to 580,000 dmt.
The company expects the restart to cost around $39 million.
Pilbara Minerals also announced it anticipates a record spodumene shipment for the June quarter. The shipment's expected to be around 96,000 dtm.
Despite the seemingly good news, the Pilbara Minerals share price also fell on Friday to close 3.26% lower than its previous session.
Pilbara Minerals share price snapshot
2021 has been a good year so far for the Pilbara Minerals share price, which has gained around 65% year to date.
It has also gained a whopping 492% since this time last year.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $4.15 billion, with approximately 2.9 billion shares outstanding.
