[2][3] The biggest obstacle to operations by the newly minted ENDIAMA was the fact that Angola was embroiled in the Angolan Civil War, and rebel groups such as the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) held much of Angola's valuable mining areas, such as the Kwango River basin, from which they mined diamonds to barter for weapons and military equipment.

During this chaotic time, illegal diamond mining is estimated to have been almost four times the quantity produced legally, and UNITA controlled or operated in up to 70% of the country's land area at points before the eventual end of the war in 2002.

ENDIAMA was vested all rights regarding the prospecting, mining, sorting and marketing of rough diamonds in Angola, and was enabled to enter into profit-sharing partnerships with third-parties such as Alrosa of Russia, Odebrecht of Brazil, companies owned by Soviet-born Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev such as UK-registered Daumonty Financing and Chinese-registered Lev Leviev International, the international diamond conglomerate De Beers, and diamond traders from Belgium, Israel and the United States.

SODIAM, in turn, created a rough diamond selling subsidiary of itself called Ascorp, of which it held 51% ownership, in partnership with foreign investors.

[7][8] In 2023, Diamantino Azevedo, Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, announced that as part of the reform plan of President João Lourenço, ENDIAMA and oil-giant Sonangol would potentially both seek dual listings on local and foreign stock markets, starting with "maybe with five or ten percent" with an eventual goal of 30% private ownership.