Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) shares are having a good session on Thursday.

In afternoon trade, the lithium miner's shares are up 4% to $2.22.

Why are Pilbara Minerals shares charging higher?

Investors have been buying the company's shares for a number of reasons today.

One is a broad rally from ASX lithium stocks during today's session. This has seen the likes of IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO), Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR), and Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) shares record strong gains so far today.

The catalyst for this may have been the release of an update from Albemarle Corp (NYSE: ALB) which revealed a swing to a quarterly profit after cost cutting helped offset low battery material prices.

In addition, with many ASX lithium stocks down heavily in recent sessions, there's potentially been some bargain hunting going on today.

What else?

Also potentially giving Pilbara Minerals' shares a lift today has been the release of an update on its Mid-Stream Demonstration Plant Project.

According to the release, the boards of Pilbara Minerals and Calix Ltd (ASX: CXL) have formally approved the resumption of the Mid-Stream Demonstration Plant Project following the recent award of a $15 million grant from the Western Australian Government.

Calix shares are up 12% this afternoon on the news.

The project was paused in October in response to weak lithium prices. However, with this funding, the company appears to believe it is now feasible.

'Potential to be a game-changer'

Pilbara Minerals' managing director and CEO, Dale Henderson, believes the project could be a valuable asset in the future. He said:

Thanks to the WA Government we are able to complete construction of the Mid-Stream Demonstration Project which has the potential to be a game-changer for the hard rock lithium processing industry.

This technology could create additional local jobs in Western Australia while producing a higher-value, lithium-enriched product at the mine site. This more concentrated product reduces transport volumes to our customers and ensures more value is captured onshore for Australia.

Australia has an opportunity to do more than dig and ship our minerals and through this joint venture we're looking to prove up a new way to make this possible, not only for PLS, but for the whole industry.

It aims to construct and operate a demonstration scale plant featuring the world's first industrial scale electric spodumene calciner – decarbonising one of the most carbon intensive processes in the battery materials supply chain.

Procurement activities will resume immediately with all construction works expected to be completed in the December quarter of 2025.