Vancouver, British Columbia – October 18, 2012, Sundance Minerals Ltd. (“Sundance” or the “Company”) announced today the initiation of Phase 1 drilling at the San Ricardo Gold Project located within the prolific porphyry and epithermal gold-silver-copper belt of northern Sonora State, Mexico. The program consists of approximately 800 meters of diamond drilling in the Santa Cruz Target, one of the multiple targets within Sundance’s 38,100 hectares property. The drilling will be carried out by Falcon Perforaciones of Hermosillo, Mexico under the supervision of Sundance geologists.

The program will be conducted under the terms of the option agreement between Paget Minerals and Sundance effective on August 17, 2012. Paget may earn a 51% initial interest in the property from Sundance by incurring C$5,500,000 in exploration expenditures over four years, of which US$500,000 are to be spent during the first year, and an additional 9% interest, for a total of 60%, by completing a pre-feasibility study within another three years (see press releases dated 11 September 2012).

Chris Osterman is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and is responsible for the preparation and verification of the technical information in this release.

About Sundance:

Sundance Minerals is an exploration company currently focusing on precious and base metal projects in Mexico and the United States. Our mission is to create and sustain shareholder value by developing a balanced portfolio of exploration targets in known districts. Sundance has a portfolio of 14 properties in Mexico and one in Nevada, most of which are available for JV’s. Technical information including geology, geochemistry, and geophysics is available for all of them. Five out of the 15 properties have historic drill holes. Leading properties are Miranda and San Ricardo gold projects in Sonora, Los Tamales (Cu) in Sonora, as well as Geranio and Lachatao gold projects in the Natividad mining district in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements in this News Release constitute “forward looking statements” that reflect the Company’s current expectations and projections about its future results. Forward- looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties and are based on certain factors and assumptions. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations include uncertainties relating to the continued participation of Paget in the San Ricardo project, the need to obtain additional financing to maintain its interest in and/or explore and develop the Company’s other mineral projects; uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones for the Company’s mineral projects; and other factors of the mineral exploration industry more fully described in the Company’s Management Discussion & Analysis of Financial Position and Results of Operations, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The assumptions made in developing the forward-looking statements include the continued participation of Paget in the San Ricardo project, and the availability of equipment and qualified personnel to advance the San Ricardo project. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or any other reason.