The StateEmployees' Credit Union said it now is one of a growing numberof financial institutions in some parts of the country that havestopped financing purchases of property whose owners have sold themineral rights.

The mineral rights have most often been sold to facilitateexploration and drilling for oil and natural gas, often through aprocedure known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking, which extractsoil and natural gas from primarily shale deposits with a mixture ofwater and chemicals forced underground at pressure.

“The issue is not fracking per se,” explained Jim Blaine, CEO of the1.86-million member, $26.9 billion credit union in Raleigh, N.C.“We take no position on that. The issues are whether buyers areaware that the mineral rights have been sold and what that might doto the value of the property.”