Rio Tinto told investors a multibillion-dollar expansion of its Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia was running to budget and schedule in the same week it held crisis meetings to review warnings of lengthy project delays.

“The nine-month delay is real, and based on historical performance, it is unlikely to be the final schedule extension for the project,” one consultancy wrote in a report delivered to executives at a meeting in October 2018, months before Rio finally told investors of the nine-month delay.