B--CRITICAL MIN. INV. TX CORES OFFSHORE WAT

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Acquisition Management Division, through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is soliciting quotes for a Firm-Fixed-Price contract to conduct a Critical Mineral Investigation of Texas Cores Collected in Offshore Waters under solicitation number 140M0126Q0028. The effort involves elemental and mineralogical analyses of 624 samples from 208 cores retrieved from the Texas Outer Continental Shelf to identify and characterize critical mineral deposits, with work requiring travel to Austin, Texas, and Boca Raton, Florida, for sample collection and analysis at the contractor’s facility. Deliverables include a Critical Minerals Core Report for each core, tabular data in a BOEM-specified schema, and digital outputs from analytical methods such as LPSA, ICP, HLS, XRF, and TIMA3, all to be submitted via a secure SharePoint server. The contract has a one-year performance period, with all deliverables required within 365 days of award, and includes strict requirements for quality control, with the contractor responsible for ensuring all materials are error-free prior to submission. Acceptance of deliverables is subject to a 30-day review period by BOEM, and payment is contingent upon successful delivery and approval of milestones, with invoicing conducted electronically through the Treasury’s Invoice Processing Platform in compliance with the Prompt Payment clause. The solicitation is unrestricted, non-set-aside, and falls under NAICS code 541715, targeting commercial services for scientific analysis. Proposals must be submitted in two separate volumes — Technical and Price — with the technical narrative limited to 10 pages of formatted text (12-point, single-spaced, 8.5x11), excluding resumes and appendices. The price volume must include SF-18 and SF-30 forms, demonstrate open-market pricing with applicable discounts, and provide evidence that proposed rates are comparable to or lower than those offered to other federal or industry entities. The solicitation incorporates multiple FAR and DIAR clauses, including whistleblower protections, prohibitions on restricted confidentiality agreements, SAM maintenance, rights in data, security exclusions, and DEI discrimination compliance, with all clauses taking effect as per their latest revisions. The contractor must operate as an independent entity, free from government supervision, and be responsible for full compliance with technical, financial, and schedule obligations. Organizational conflict of interest provisions are binding, require disclosure of post-award conflicts,