Many underground operations consist of several tunnels acting as accesses, haulages, production levels, and airways but there is only a limited number of shafts that can be developed for any given ore body and these shafts must be sunk in the right place with the correct configuration to get optimum operational benefit. Despite the extensive and widespread use of shafts as a primary means of access to the ore body for many mineral resources in South Africa, there is little current and comprehensive reference material which provides a central body of knowledge spanning the various design and cost factors involved in shaft design for either green field or brown field projects. The purpose of this paper is to cover some aspects which have to be considered when designing mine shafts. It is hoped that this paper will be used throughout industry as a quantitative  basis for the comparison of various mine access options both for new and existing mines. This should form an integral part of any mine design process.