By Rajasik Mukherjee

Nov 12 (Reuters) - Shares of Paladin Energy plunged on Tuesday and were on track for their worst session in more than seven years, after the Australian uranium producer cut its fiscal 2025 output forecast for the Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia.

The stock declined as much as 28.9% to A$6.880 by 0126 GMT, posting its biggest intraday percentage loss since May 2017. It hit its lowest level since June 28, 2023.

Paladin slashed its annual production forecast to 3.0–3.6 million pounds from 4.0-4.5 Mlb, citing operational challenges and delays in ramping up production.

Australia's biggest pure-play uranium miner in terms of market value said its October production was "lower than primarily planned", as disruptions in water supply from state-owned NamWater led to lower throughput volume of ore tonnes processed.

The Perth-headquartered miner said that a planned shutdown at the Langer Heinrich mine was scheduled in the second half of November and would run for about two weeks. The shutdown would pave the way for operational upgrades to be implemented at the mine.

Paladin said water would be stored during the shutdown and this would "provide a buffer" against any disruption during the Namibian summer, when demand was at its peak.

"The company states the production drop is due to variable ore grades (inevitable) and lack of water supply – a worrying development as it speaks to issues in operating in countries with less developed infrastructure," said Michael McCarthy, chief commercial officer of Moomoo Australia.

Paladin also withdrew all other previous forecasts for the coming fiscal year and said that unit operating costs could be impacted by the forecast cut, which would lead them to re-assess realised prices for uranium sales.

(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

((Rajasik.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com;))