The majors will either deny interest in Aurelian or give a terse no comment. If I am Yamana why would I say Aurelian is extremely undervalued?
1. If I am interested in Aurelian then I have likely just cost my company several hundred million dollars by driving the takeover price expectations up.
2. If I'm interested in another junior then I've done the same thing by raising the bar and in turn cost my company potentially hundreds of millions.
As to your last point what Barrick is doing is just good business but don't forget what business they are in GOLD. They are buying energy companies to control their costs. It has no baring on their depleting reserves.