(Adds details on results and background) Aug 25 (Reuters) -...

(Adds details on results and background)

Aug 25 (Reuters) - Australia's South32 Ltd (S32) pledged on Thursday to pay a special dividend after its annual profit jumped more than fivefold, with the diversified miner flagging a boost in output across majority of its global operations in the current year.

South32, which was spun off from BHP (BHP) in 2015, declared a special dividend of 3 cents per share and a final dividend of 14 cents, up from 3.5 cents a year earlier, taking shareholder returns to a record $1.3 billion for fiscal 2022.

The company forecasts its copper equivalent production to increase 14% in fiscal 2023, and said it had been able to contain cost inflation across its operations through the year.

The miner has also resolved to further expand its capital management programme by $156 million to $2.3 billion, leaving $250 million to be returned to shareholders by Sept. 1, 2023.

Western sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine have squeezed an already-tight supply of commodities such as coking coal, pushing up prices of materials that South32 mines.

That helped the company overcome the hit from a labour shortage and torrential rains in the key producing area of New South Wales that had also impacted the operations of BHP Group (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO) .

"We are well-positioned to navigate the current economic uncertainty ... while our ongoing focus on cost management and an expected 14% increase in production will mitigate industry-wide cost inflation," said Chief Executive Officer Graham Kerr.

The world's biggest producer of manganese said its underlying earnings for the year ended June 30 rose to $2.60 billion, from $489 million a year ago. The figure came in higher than the $2.55 billion expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv data.

On a statutory basis, the miner posted a profit after tax of $2.67 billion, versus a loss of $195 million last year.