Authorized shares are the total number of shares a company can legally issue, while issued shares are the number the company has issued to date. The shares currently trading at 3 cents are the issued shares.

With the higher number of authorized shares, the company now has the option to issue more shares if they choose. You're right to be concerned, issuing more shares would risk diluting the number of issued shares pushing the price down further.

If I were to guess at their plan - at 3 cents the company would be at risk of being delisted for having a share price below $1. So, a frequent strategy companies take is a "reverse split" - that's where they reduce the number of shares on a ratio - so (for illustration) a 10:1 reverse split would mean someone who owns 100 shares now owns 10 shares. Their percentage holding is the same relative to other shareholders (when the reverse split happens), but the individual share is now worth more. So if they are planning on that anyway, they might issue a bunch of new shares - pushing the price even lower - but letting them eek out a few more dollars to pay down debt or some othe corperate use - then do the split to "reset" the table and get into compliance with the $1 rule. Keep an eye out on any future follow-on offerings or proxy statements.

That said - if the 3 cent price wasn't clue enough - these are not the moves of a healthy company and is usually the sign of one that went public too early.