Closed twentieth-century silver and polymetallic mine shaft above Banská Štiavnica, with a surviving headframe tower visible at Šobov.
Nová šachta is a deep mine shaft sunk in the early 1960s in the saddle between the Glanzenberg and Sobov hills above Banská Štiavnica, within the UNESCO World Heritage mining district of Banská Štiavnica and its Technical Monuments. It was sunk near the site of the old, collapsed Gábor shaft and reached a final depth of more than 850 metres, making it the deepest shaft in the district. Its main working levels were the 3rd, 5th, and 12th obzors, and two deep levels.
After the šachta František closed around 1975, Nová šachta became the primary production shaft for the Rudné bane enterprise at Banská Štiavnica, working the Terézia, Špitaler and Bieber veins and the Alžbeta metasomatic orebody. Mining ceased in the late 1990s when the operation became uneconomic. The hoisting tower and former office building survive at the Šobov locality and are noted as landmarks of the district.
Nová šachta occupies a saddle between the Glanzenberg hill and the Sobov hill, on the hillside above the historic town of Banská Štiavnica. The shaft was sunk in the early 1960s, close to the location of the former Gábor shaft, which had by that time collapsed. The new shaft was intended to supersede and replace the ageing older infrastructure of the Banská Štiavnica ore field, providing deep access to polymetallic ore reserves at depths beyond those reached by the historic shafts of the town.
The shaft was sunk to a depth exceeding 850 metres, with principal working levels established at the 3rd, 5th and 12th obzors, and with additional access to a 1st and 2nd deep level. The ore worked from Nová šachta included polymetallic veins carrying lead, zinc, copper, silver and gold, specifically the Terézia, Špitaler and Bieber veins, as well as the Alžbeta metasomatic orebody. During the period of operation of Nová šachta, the mine produced significant quantities of mineral specimens, the range of which encompassed substantially the whole of the published mineral list for Banská Štiavnica; rare silver and gold ores, fluorite, tetrahedrite, celestite and other species were recovered.
Following the closure of šachta František around 1975, Nová šachta became the main production shaft for the Banská Štiavnica division of Rudné bane. The enterprise continued working the polymetallic ore deposits through the 1970s and 1980s, employing between 1,500 and 1,600 workers across mining, smelting and associated activities at its peak. After the government resolutions of 1990 and 1991 on the rationalisation of Slovak ore mining, the mining programme was progressively wound down. Underground operations at the Banská Štiavnica division ceased from 1 February 1992, with closure and liquidation works carried out subsequently. Nová šachta is recorded as one of the last active shafts before this closure.
Some sources mention a very large shaft at Banská Štiavnica — reported at 7.5 metres in diameter and approximately 900 metres deep — that was constructed for ventilation and supply purposes but never brought into full operation because mining in the district was winding down by the time it was completed. Whether this shaft is distinct from Nová šachta or an extension of the same project is not entirely clear from the consulted sources.
The hoisting tower (ťažná veža) of Nová šachta survives at the Šobov locality above the town and is recorded as a visible landmark of the district alongside the former office building. The shaft site lies within the Banská Štiavnica and Technical Monuments of its Surroundings UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed on 11 December 1993. No heritage listing specific to the Nová šachta structures has been identified in the consulted sources.