https://www.mining.com/rio-tinto-to-write-off-2-3bn-oyu-tolgoi-lo...

https://www.mining.com/rio-tinto-to-write-off-2-3bn-oyu-tolgoi-loan-to-mongolia/

Hoping the host country to come up with the money to finance a project in return for share in the project is just unimaginable in modern times !
If you look at the Production Sharing contracts (PSCs) awarded by the host countries in the many decades in the last in most, if not all countries, the PSCs allow the contractors to claim their costs (with a limit in each period of production, maybe 20% at the most) from production of the resource, and the balance to be split between the host govt and the contractors.
In this way, the contractors take all the risks of exploration, like in EXR.

There is nothing to be surprised of !
The concept of Production sharing contracts is the way forward now.