GOLD Coast City Council is hoping to get its piece of the mining-boom pie with a fly-in, fly-out service for miners at the airport.

But council might be jumping the gun with no agreement signed with a mining company.

Mayor Ron Clarke announced yesterday that it had secured a terminal at Gold Coast Airport and its representatives FIFO Terminal was in talks with a mining company about a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workforce to Queensland mines.

“I’m advised FIFO Terminal now has an agreement in place with the Gold Coast Airport and Council’s Economic Development Branch to facilitate and operate the first fly-in fly-out terminal exclusively for resource and mining companies in Queensland,” Cr Clarke said.

He said the plan was for Queensland mines to use a terminal, previously used by Tiger Airways, to fly about 2000 skilled miners in and out of the Gold Coast.

“This all came up when a mining company came to us about five weeks ago. I thought it was a good idea,” Cr Clarke said.

A Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) spokeswoman said the company floated the FIFO idea with five councils to service its proposed Caval Ridge Mine project, but neither the mine nor the flight service was confirmed.

“BMA is assessing a number of regional towns and centres, including Cairns/North Queensland, the Sunshine Coast the Gold Coast and Toowoomba, as well as Brisbane, as possible sources of skilled labour for the proposed Caval Ridge Mine project,” she said.

A Gold Coast Airport spokeswoman also said no agreement was signed with council but talks were continuing.

A council spokesman said the council had an exclusive rights arrangement with the airport, which does secure the terminal to begin negotiations with miners.