Endiama, Angola's government-run diamond company, inked a deal on Friday with the Mineralstar and Sovinhos companies to establish a diamond exploration partnership, the Agencia AngolaPress reports.

The companies are expected to cooperate in researching and prospecting diamond deposits in Cangadala in the country's Malaje province.

The deal stipulates that once the project reaches the active exploration stage, the companies will establish a commercial company – of which Endiama will hold 33%, Mineralstar 25% and Sovinhos 42% - that will have exclusive rights to both diamond exploration and diamond trading in the area mentioned.

Angola is already a major diamond producer; according to the Kimberley Process Annual Global Summary for 2009, the country produced over 13.8 million carats of rough diamonds with a total value of $1.179 billion.