Feb 17 (Reuters) - BHP Group ( BHP ) on Tuesday reported a better-than-expected half-year underlying profit, driven by ​record first-half iron ore ‌production and higher prices for its ⁠key commodities, iron ore and copper.

The ⁠world's largest listed miner ‌produced ‌a record 146.6 million metric tons of ​iron ore from ‌its Western Australia operations on a 100% basis.

BHP achieved ​higher average ​realised ‌prices for its major commodities, with copper prices rising 32% in ⁠the first half compared with ⁠the same period last year.

That helped the world's largest listed miner report underlying attributable ⁠profit ‌of $6.20 billion for the six ‌months ended December 2025, beating ⁠the Visible Alpha consensus of $6.03 billion and ahead of the prior period's $5.08 billion.

BHP also declared an interim dividend of 73 cents per ​share, representing a payout ratio of 60%.

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and ​Rajasik Mukherjee ‌in Bengaluru; Editing by ​Lisa Shumaker)