The first data on the Štefan shaft mining plant date from 1786. The main mining object of this plant was the Štefan shaft, which was located in a very rich ore pillar of the Štefan vein.

In this part of the vein, the mineralization had a thickness of 10 m with an approximate length of 150 m. In the second half of the 18th century, it was the richest, massively mined ore for silver (gold had only an inferior representation) of the entire Banská Štiavnica ore district. In the first half of the 19th century, an average of 400 miners worked at the Štefan plant. The shaft brought an annual profit of around 200,000 guilders. Mining maintained the profitability of the Banská Štiavnica mines until 1862, when the quality of mined ore was already showing itself in this part as well. Around 1865, there were only 33 workers working in the mine, who produced only 49.6 kg of precious metal bullion. In 1883, 100 workers produced 0.7 kg of gold and 129.5 kg of silver worth 9,379 guilders. The shaft opened up a total of 11 horizons and reached a depth of 315 m. The last deepening of the shaft took place in 1905, when it was connected to the Hereditary tadit of Emperor Jozef II. For vertical transport, a horse-drawn drawbar was built above the shaft, and a water wheel with piston pumps was used to pump mine water. In 1858, the drawbar was canceled and the simple water wheel was converted into a reverse one, used for vertical transport. In 1890, the water wheel was dismantled, and in 1903, a steam engine from the František shaft in Banská Štiavnica was transferred to the shaft, which was in operation until the end of its mining activity, until 1909. In 1900, the Štefan shaft plant ceased to be an independent plant and joined the František shaft and Mária shaft plant. Today, there is a concrete slab with the opening of a ventilation pipe in the place of the shaft bend.