Top metals trader resigns from Noble Singapore -sources

SINGAPORE, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The head of Noble Group (Frankfurt: N2X.F - news) 's base metals operations in Singapore, Rene van der Kam, resigned in the past week, sources said on Thursday.

The departure of Van der Kam, who was a director of base metals at Noble Resources, may come as a blow to the commodities trader which has renewed a push to build up its base metals operations this year.

The Singapore-listed firm hired a string of big hitting metals traders, including two from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) in the first half of the year.

It recently also won a hotly contested deal to market in Europe the zinc produced by the world's top zinc smelter, Belgium's Nyrstar (Other OTC: NYRSF - news) .

Van der Kam, a veteran of the metals business, joined Noble in June 2011 from metals trader RBS Sempra commodities, having also spent time at energy powerhouse Enron. He sits on the London Metal Exchange's tin committee as well.

Metals trader Yingping Julie Zhu also left Noble Resources in the past week, the sources said. Zhu previously worked at Swiss commodities trader Glencore.

Both Van der Kam and Zhu declined to comment.

Noble could not be reached for a comment.