URANIUM miner Paladin Energy said a surge in the trading of its shares was probably due to speculation surrounding Lift Capital Partners being put into administration.

McGrathNicol was appointed as administrator of Lift Capital, a privately owned margin loan specialist, on Thursday.

This prompted financial backer Merrill Lynch to appropriate shares held by Lift, including those of Paladin.

Two Paladin directors, Rick Crabb and Gillian Swaby, launched legal action against Merrill Lynch and Lift on Friday, seeking to prevent Merrill Lynch from liquidating the shares.

A hearing of the matter in the federal court in Perth today was held over until Wednesday.

“Myself and Mr Crabb have margin lending facilities and we want to clearly secure our shareholdings,” Ms Swaby told AAP.

“We fully believe, with all legal documentation, we have beneficial title to them and we started taking legal action on Friday.

“We had already lodged documentation several days ago to settle the position and that wasn't processed.”

Paladin's shares closed down 4.76 per cent at $4.60 on Friday on a volume of 5.9 million shares. On average, Paladin's shares were trading on a volume of about 3 million shares per day in the four days before then.

“On Friday, trading volumes in Paladin stock both on the ASX and TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) were abnormally high, and we believe this development may possibly be due to speculation surrounding Lift Capital Partners being put into administration,” Paladin said today.

Paladin shares were down 31c, or 6.74 per cent, at $4.29, this afternoon.

Paladin said it wanted to advise the investment community that it was in a strong position “and can be regarded as the leading emerging uranium producer in the world”.

It said it was maintaining its production guidance for the 2008 and 2009 calendar years at its flagship Langer Heinrich uranium project in Namibia.

The company said it has commenced an aggressive expansion program at this project, while construction at its Kayelekera uranium project in Malawi was on schedule and on-budget.

“These activities are fully funded with bank finance and existing cash funds,” the company said.

Paladin said $US325 million ($352.4 million) raised in February had allowed it to maintain ongoing merger and acquisition activities over the next 12 to 18 months.

It estimated that its production of uranium oxide in 2008 would total 2.6 million pounds, growing to 4.7 million pounds in 2009.

By 2012/14, it said, it expected either its Mt Isa uranium project in Queensland, or its Angela uranium project in the Northern Territory, “to be on a development path, potentially adding further production”.