Over the last several years, the large gold mining companies have produced revenue gains on the back of higher gold prices and not much in the way of mining more ounces of gold. If the price of gold keeps going up, that approach works. However, if the price of gold stabilizes for a while – several years – investors might be more interested in mining companies which can increase revenues and profits without the assistance of higher gold prices.

Here are five gold mining companies with strong prospects for higher production results in 2012 and into future years. Note that four of the five companies are ADRs trading on the U.S. exchanges. Forecast earnings estimates for these companies are from the specific company pages of adr.com.

Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA (BVN) is located in Peru, owns several gold mines outright, and is partial owner of several other mines in Peru, including 44% of Yanacocha – Latin America’s largest gold mine. The company also owns the world’s fourth largest silver mine and produces a significant amount of the silver metal. Compania de Minas Buenaventura has a current market cap of $11.7 billion and trades at 12.5 times 2011 earnings. The average earnings estimate forecasts net income growing by about 10% in 2012. This stock is also popular with investors and is one of the few larger cap gold mining companies with a share price gain so far in 2012. It is always good to own a stock going up in value.To continue reading, click here.