A Chinese mining tycoon who once mounted a billion-dollar bid for an Australian company has gone on trial for murder.
Liu Han, his brother Liu Wei and 34 others were charged in a Xianning court, in the central province of Hubei, on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The gang, based in Sichuan province in the southwest, were the biggest such "mafia-style" group to face a courtroom in recent years, Xinhua said.
Liu Han led the private company Hanlong group, a diversified firm with interests ranging from tourism to minerals, and assets of more than 20 billion yuan ($A3.47 billion), the group's website says.
Hanlong launched a takeover bid of more than $US1 billion for listed Australian iron ore company Sundance Resources in 2011 but the deal collapsed last year after the firm failed to follow through. Chinese media reports said at the time that Liu Han had been detained.
"His business empire was backed by menace," Xinhua said in a lengthy report about the case in February.
It said Liu and his gang had "accumulated enormous wealth in property, mining, and electricity" via illegal means, adding that his "criminal empire" had assets of 40 billion yuan.
Sichuan is one of the powerbases of Zhou Yongkang, China's former hugely powerful security chief, who is at the centre of rumours about a corruption investigation.
State media have hinted that Liu Han's gang had political connections to central government officials.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched a much-publicised drive to crack down on corruption, vowing to take on both senior "tigers" and low-level "flies".
