Mining giant BHP Billiton swung back to profit in its fiscal first half and rewarded shareholders with a bigger than expected dividend.  The good report was boosted by higher commodity prices, continued cost cutting, and the absence of large writedowns.

"This is a strong result that follows several years of a considered and deliberate approach to improve productivity and redesign our portfolio and operating model," Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie said in a statement.

The world's biggest miner reported a net profit of US$3.24 Billion (AU$4.2 Billion) for the six months through December.  Compare that to the company's loss of US$5.67 Billion in the same period a year earlier - that was due to heavy write-downs on its US oil assets and also its troubled Brazilian joint venture, Samarco.

For shareholders, it means a first-half dividend of 40 cents, up from 16 cents a year ago.  The miner earlier promised to offer shareholders at least 50% of underlying profits each fiscal half.

"We are confident in the long-term outlook for our commodities, particularly oil, with markets expected to rebalance in the near-term, and copper where we expect a deficit to emerge in the early 2020s," said Mr. Mackenzie.