Feb 12 (Reuters) - Australian diversified miner South32 S32.AX reported a 16% rise in its first-half profit on Thursday, boosted by higher commodity prices.

South32, the world's biggest producer of manganese, said its underlying earnings attributable was $435 million for the half-year ended December 31, compared with $375 million a year earlier.

That beat the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of $386.6 million.

(Reporting by Sherin Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

((Sherin.Sunny@thomsonreuters.com;))